Comet Siding Spring passing close by Mars

The comet Siding Spring is just about to reach its closest approach to Mars. Below are links to various sites with info and imagery:

Comet Siding Spring (C/2013 A1) 
Comet Siding Spring (C/2013 A1) is racing toward Mars
for a close encounter on October 19, 2014.

* Latest NASA news and images:

On Sunday, Oct. 19, Comet C/2013 A1, also known as comet Siding Spring, will pass within about 87,000 miles (139,500 kilometers) of the Red Planet — less than half the distance between Earth and our moon and less than one-tenth the distance of any known comet flyby of Earth. Siding Spring’s nucleus will come closest to Mars around 11:27 a.m. PDT (2:27 p.m. EDT), hurtling at about 126,000 mph (56 kilometers per second).

Hubble Image of Comet Siding Spring 
The images above show — before and after filtering — comet C/2013 A1,
also known as Siding Spring, as captured by Wide Field Camera 3 on NASA’s

* ESA live webcast: European Space Agency – live streaming video powered by Livestream

* Live webcast from the SLOOH online observatory: live.slooh.com – Comet Siding Spring Swings by on a Close Approach to Mars

* Display of the current position of the comet in the sky: Comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) Live Position and Finder Chart – TheSkyLive

* An animation of NASA’s Mars Odyssey  orbiter maneuvering to image Comet Siding Spring:

 

Path of the comet:

Simulation of the Comet Siding SpringBrought to you by the Near-Earth Object (NEO) office
at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
.