Mcnaught reported the discovery of an apparently asteroidal object on ccd images obtained with the 0 5 m uppsala schmidt telescope on jan.
Comet c 2013 a1 siding spring.
C 2013 a1 siding spring is an oort cloud comet discovered on 3 january 2013 by robert h.
At the time of discovery it was 7 2 au from the sun and located in the constellation lepus comet c 2013 a1 probably took millions of years to come from the oort cloud.
Schleicher lowell observatory obtained two narrowband photometry sets of comet c 2013 a1 on oct.
These observations were acquired only about 8 hr after the comet s closest approach to mars and yield the following mean production rates.
20 with the comet at r 1 40 au using the hall 1 1 m telescope at lowell observatory.
Haser 1 2 x 10 28 molecules s with an uncertainty of.
These images were taken of comet c 2013 a1 siding spring by nasa s mars reconnaissance orbiter on oct.
19 comet c 2013 a1 comet siding spring will pass within about 87 000 miles 139 500 km of mars.
The first finder chart has a field of view of 50 degrees while the second one has a field of view of 10 degrees.
Comet siding spring c 2013 a1 is racing toward mars for a close encounter on october 19 2014.
After posting at the minor planet center s neocp webpage mcnaught.
3 discovery observations tabulated below.
Just weeks before the historic encounter of comet c 2013 a1 siding spring with mars in october 2014 nasa s mars atmosphere and volatile evolution maven spacecraft entered orbit around the red planet.
19 2014 during the comet s close flyby of mars and the spacecraft.
Nasa s extensive fleet of science assets particularly those orbiting and roving mars have front row seats to image and study this once in a lifetime flyby.
Below we provide comet c 2013 a1 siding spring finder charts showing where the object is right now in the sky with respect to the brightest stars.
Mcnaught at siding spring observatory using the 0 5 meter 20 in uppsala southern schmidt telescope.
Comet c 2013 a1 siding spring position and finder charts.