NASA Science Briefing: Comet Siding Spring at Mars

Amateur astronomers around the globe have a ringside seat as Comet 2013 A1 (Siding Spring) hurtles through space en route to an incredibly close encounter with the planet Mars on Sunday, 19 October.

Look low to the south-southeast at 11:35pm BST tonight and, if the current British “monsoon” clears, you will see the full Moon rising at dusk at the instant the 2016 summer solstice occurs in the Northern Hemisphere. The last time that this happened on the same UK day was 22 June 1967.

This animation shows Comet Siding Spring’s path as it comes within 132,000 kilometres (82,000 miles) of Mars on 19 October 2014.