Comet Siding Spring: Not a Complete Miss

Comet Siding Spring itself, photo credits to
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope

Comet Siding Spring. C/2013 A1. And after its passing, it also became known as the “Near Miss With Mars!”, as written on the NASA website. Early on, the comet had been projected to collide with Mars, but further determination of its orbit excluded this prediction. Siding Spring, that which passed within 87,000 miles of Mars on October 19, that which with it’s age of 4.6 billion years may help scientists form ideas on the formation of the solar system, has turned out to be not quite the miss it had been declared. The comet has been found to temporarily affect the atmosphere of Mars, specifically, increasing the concentration of ions in the ionosphere. This comet, besides holding clues to the formation of the solar system, is also the first instance of a connection between the changes of a planet’s ionosphere and a comet. Credits for the discovery go to the spacecraft that recorded the passing of the comet, a recording that is now offering much insight into the affect of the comet on the planet’s atmosphere.