Sun view of Comet Siding Spring and the Mars orbiting fleet
- Visualizations by:
- Greg Shirah
- View full credits
This visualization shows active spacecraft orbiting Mars and their relationship to Comet Siding Spring. The comet passes very close to Mars on October 19, 2014. The camera is looking from the direction of the Sun towards Mars. The camera is fixed to Mars and the orbit trail of Mars goes off to the right.
As Comet Siding-Spring makes its way through the Martian neighborhood it reaches the closest distance at about 18:32 UT. Debris left by the comet follows behind the comet on the line representing where the comet was. This derbis impacts Mars at about 20:08 UT. Scientists and engineers are concerned that the derbis may harm the spacecraft. Several of the spacecraft have executed orbital maneuvers to put them on the opposite side of Mars when the debris impacts.
As Comet Siding-Spring makes its way through the Martian neighborhood it reaches the closest distance at about 18:32 UT. Debris left by the comet follows behind the comet on the line representing where the comet was. This derbis impacts Mars at about 20:08 UT. Scientists and engineers are concerned that the derbis may harm the spacecraft. Several of the spacecraft have executed orbital maneuvers to put them on the opposite side of Mars when the debris impacts.
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio
Animators
- Greg Shirah (NASA/GSFC) [Lead]
- Ernie Wright (USRA)
Scientists
- Bruce Jakosky (LASP)
- David Folta (NASA/GSFC)
- Kelly Fast (NASA/HQ)
Producer
- Dan Gallagher (KBRwyle)
Project support
- Ian Jones (ADNET)
- Laurence Schuler (ADNET)
Series
This visualization can be found in the following series:Datasets used in this visualization
GSFC Flight Dynamics Facility Ephemeris
EphemerisGSFC/FDF
DE421 (A.K.A. JPL DE421)
EphemerisNASA/JPL
Planetary ephemerides
Dataset can be found at: http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/?ephemerides#planets
See more visualizations using this data setNote: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details nor the data sets themselves on our site.
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