RR Phantom
Location : Wasted Space Job/hobbies : Cayman Islands Actuary
| Subject: Idiots in science claim: Comet will fly 200 kilometers from the sun, before flying away Thu Apr 03, 2014 11:37 pm | |
| The Hubble Space Telescope has spotted a comet spewing gas and dust into space as it zooms to a close encounter with Mars in October.
Researchers working with Hubble recently released two images of comet C/2013 A1, also known as Siding Spring. The image on the left, captured on March 11, shows what Hubble saw. The one on the right has been resolved to reveal what appears to be two distinct jets shooting out of the comet's the icy nucleus.
Comet Sliding Spring began its journey to the sun 1 million years ago from the hypothesised – but never seen – Oort cloud in the cold, outer reaches of our solar system. On October 19, it will come within 135,000 kilometres of Mars – about half the distance between the Earth and the moon.
On October 25, it will fly about 200 kilometres from the sun, before flying away, possibly never to be seen again.
Microbial Martians that may or may not exist are in no danger from this comet, but some of the spacecraft we have sent to Mars may be, according to researchers.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/hubble-spots-comet-heading-towards-mars-spewing-space-dust-20140404-zqqms.html#ixzz2xswbOWvn |
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