Comet observation from Mars, comets close encounters to Mars in 2013 and 2014 |
Comet observation from Mars, comets close encounters to Mars in 2013 and 2014 |
Feb 25 2013, 10:07 PM
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Newbie Group: Members Posts: 18 Joined: 20-April 05 From: Czech Republic Member No.: 300 |
Is there is any possibility to observe comets in near future from surface of Mars and/or from Mars orbiters. Which types of instruments are possible to use?
For example (http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons.cgi - position Mars 0deg Longitude, 5deg south Latitude, time UTC): 1) Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) 2013-Oct-01 17:19UTC RA 23 07 44.73 DE +69 27 46.0 MAG 2.93 r 1.637007919902 delta 0.07246306543080 So there is relativly very close encounter in October 2013, about 11 million km from Mars.. 2) Comet C/2013 A1 (Sidding Spring) 2014-Oct-19 20:59UTC RA 10 49 50.64 DE -60 38 09.5 MAG -8.29 r 1.401218071277 delta 0.00070643344409 There is still maybe not so precise orbit BUT, there is ONLY about 105 000 km (65 000 miles) encounter from Mars. Especially the second comet, if this orbit will be OK, is very interesting target to observe. -------------------- |
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Oct 2 2013, 10:18 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 691 Joined: 21-December 07 From: Clatskanie, Oregon Member No.: 3988 |
Fred that is correct, ISON shouldn't have a trail that follows the stars, but should move between long exposure frames and have its own movement or trail if the images were taken with very long exposure. In my opinion, Gerald's heavily processed images do make a good case that it's the comet based on aligning the stars in his image and what starry night spits out, ISON's position aligns very well with his candidate. I'm curious though exactly how he processed those. I did use Opportunity's current position. Hopefully the PDS images will be a help in solidly confirming it when they are released.
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Oct 2 2013, 11:14 PM
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#3
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 4252 Joined: 17-January 05 Member No.: 152 |
ISON shouldn't have a trail that follows the stars, but should move between long exposure frames and have its own movement or trail if the images were taken with very long exposure. Actually I meant pointlike apart from any motion, ie pointlike if you could image it with a very short exposure. (Actually psf-like, of course.) I was getting at the difference in scale between pancam and the hirise image - unfortunately we're not told the hirise scale.ISON must have moved between the MER and MSL sky positions in about 7 hours. But that separation is only very roughly 10 times the star trail lengths, which presumably correspond to ~1 minute exposures. So the comet's motion relative to the stars would be roughly 7 hours/10 minutes ~ 40 times slower than the stars' trailing (sidereal) motion. So the comet's motion in a ~1 minute exposure should be essentially the same as the stars, so I'd expect a trail for ISON with very similar length and orientation as the stars' trails. (This ignores the different locations of MER and MSL, though it would be a coincidence if they conspired to cancel out the comet's motion.) |
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