WASHINGTON: NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) probe and Odyssey spacecraft are hiding behind Mars as Comet Siding Spring whizzed 87,000 miles (139,500 kilometers) past the planet at high speed.
MAVEN principal investigator Bruce Jakosky, of the University of Colorado, Boulder, said in a statement that three spacecraft and two rovers — NASA’s Curiosity and Opportunity — plus the two other probes at the Red Planet, were also charged with gathering information about the comet and its effect on Mars.
“We are glad the spacecraft came through, we’re excited to complete our observations of how the comet affects Mars and we’re eager to get to our primary science phase,” Bruce Jakosky said. People using telescopes captured some incredible images of Comet Siding Spring and Mars from Earth.
“Working on three scopes at the Siding Spring Observatory, we hoped that between them, we’d get a great result,” astronomer Nick Howes said of his plans to capture images of the comet.
