Comet brushes Mars today; Once in a million year event.

i don't see anything.

 

I think with these sorts of things it's better to wait a week or two and let them analise the data before releasing it in a more interesting way. I like Mars and space exploration but the above videos have left me underwhelmed. Sorry.

 

yes, seems more scientific than visual. i was hoping for a good collision.

 

One visualization I would like to see is how the comet would appear by eye from the Martian surface. Phil Plaitt said it would cover 7 degrees which is not ignorable if it was brightly lit. But for how long would it have been big in the sky? Two minutes like ISS? A hour?

Fifty km/sec at 150,000 km range. We should be able to figure this out.

 

I was going to get my scope out, but they said the comet was 12th magnitude which I am lucky to see dimmer than 5th magitude around here., but 12 forget it.

 

that's pretty sweet. reminds me of buck whatsisname.

 

No.

The landscape and atmospheric haze indicate a daylight picture. The purported 'comet' tail is suggesting that the sun is below the horizon, i.e. a nighttime picture.

The 'comet' also looks far more like an artist's impression of a meteoric fireball than of an actual comet.

 

I think this one's real. It's a picture of a Comet viewed from Mars.

 

Sounds like this event was over-hyped...I see no pictures on-line.

But we got a partial solar eclipse Oct 23 in North America, and meteor shower the same day from Halley's Comet. So look up!

 

Some images are now online, but they are quite unimpressive compared to the mock-up image back at post #10. BTW, I found that image used in a post from Feb 27, 1013: New data concerning the close approach of comet C/2013 A1 to Mars.

Actual pictures in these posts:
(from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter) Mars-Bound Comet: Photos of Comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring (Gallery)
(from Opportunity rover): Mars and Siding Spring: Photo gallery.
Opportunity Rover Spots Comet Siding Spring from the Surface of Mars!
NASA Rover Opportunity Views Comet Near Mars | NASA

 

14, surely?

 

last link in #16 has Opportunity Panoramic camera showing cosmic rays. Cosmic rays. Pretty amazing what happens in 0.006 of an atmosphere. (and a weak planetary magnetic field)

 

While that one initially appears the most impressive, I'm leaving it as 'undetermined'. But I have a suspicion that the Comet's service ceiling isn't high enough to operate in Mars' thin atmosphere.

 

With the pre-1958 ones, that would certainly be a problem: those square windows couldn't deal with the pressure differences inherent in interplanetary travel, and we'd have seen the traditional Comet 1 wings-falling-off problem. But the Comet 2 with the round windows would probably be OK. The poor resolution from the Curiosity camera makes it hard to tell which kind it is.