Live coverage: Europe’s Mars mission launches

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.

Mars has an invisible magnetic “tail” that is twisted by interaction with the solar wind, according to new research using data from NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft.

A short circuit that halted movement of NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is not expected to keep the mobile robot stationary for long, but engineers want to know whether the problem will restrict some future science operations.