Have You Heard, It's in the Stars; Cometary Billiards  

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Jenis: Article from Bulletin/Magazine
Dalam koleksi: The Economist (http://search.proquest.com/) vol. 406 no. 8826 (Mar. 2013), page 77-78.
Topik: Astronomy; Space Telescopes; Satellites; Comets; Research

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Perpustakaan Pusat (Semanggi) Nomor Panggil: EE29.75 Non-tandon: 1 (dapat dipinjam: 0) Tandon: tidak ada

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Earlier this year, the scientists operating a spacecraft called Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter started making plans to look at something other than Mars. Their calculations showed that a newly discovered comet called ISON will come within 10m kilometres (6m miles) of their spacecraft in September. Comet ISON is causing quite a stir in astronomical circles, because if, after whizzing past Mars, it survives a close shave with the sun, there is a good chance that it will go on to emblazon itself spectacularly across the skies of Earth. How handy, astronomers thought, that there should be a spacecraft near enough to the comet's inbound track to break off from its day job and take a first good look at this newcomer from the outer depths of the solar system. Now Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's operators have a second comet to study, and this one looks like coming 200 times closer than comet ISON will. This particular comet has the awkward name C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring). It was discovered on January 3rd by astronomers at the Siding Spring observatory in Australia. Calculations of its trajectory by researchers at NASA have it passing about 50,000km from Mars on October 19th 2014. That is close enough for HiRise, the remarkably acute telescope on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, to pick out features that are just a few tens of metres across on the solid nucleus which forms the comet's heart.

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