See that ball of light trailed by a mist of green? That my friends is the Comet Siding Spring. it looks like it was quite close to colliding with the open cluster Messier 6, but they are actually 2,000 light years away. On October 19th the comet is expected to pass within 139,500 kilometers of Mars. Which is 10 times closer than any other comet fly by of earth! This is actually one third of the earth to moon distance.
Saturday, October 18, 2014
apod 1.8
See that ball of light trailed by a mist of green? That my friends is the Comet Siding Spring. it looks like it was quite close to colliding with the open cluster Messier 6, but they are actually 2,000 light years away. On October 19th the comet is expected to pass within 139,500 kilometers of Mars. Which is 10 times closer than any other comet fly by of earth! This is actually one third of the earth to moon distance.
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