NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter safely watches Comet Siding Spring FlyBy

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has sent home more data about Mars than all other missions combined, is also now providing data about a comet that buzzed The Red Planet today (Oct. 19).

The orbiter continues operating in good health after sheltering behind Mars during the half hour when high-velocity dust particles from comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring had the most chance of reaching the paths of Mars orbiters.

The Comet Siding Spring C/2013 A1 is indicated on this image as it passes Mars, seen here shining brightly on the bottom left.

Credit: Slooh

maintained radio communications with Earth throughout the comet's closest approach, at 11:27 a.m. PDT (2:27 p.m. EDT), and the peak dust-risk period centered about 100 minutes later.

"The spacecraft performed flawlessly throughout the comet flyby," said Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project Manager Dan Johnston of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. "It maneuvered for the planned observations of the comet and emerged unscathed."

Following the critical period of dust flux, the orbiter is communicating at 1.5 megabits per second with NASA's Deep Space Network.

It remained on Side A of its two redundant computers, and all subsystems are working as expected.

The remainder of the NASA Mars orbiters, Mars Express and ISRO's MOM, appear to be in good health and unaffected by the comet flyby.

An artist impression of the passing of Comet Siding Spring as seen by Curiosity Rover on Mars.

Credit: SLOOH

Comet Siding Spring C2013 A1 has flown past Mars

Comet Siding Spring has made a close pass with Mars, the Red Planet, flying only 87,000 miles (139,500 kilometers) from the surface. 

Mars is seen as a bright object in these images because of the sun.

Officials monitoring spacecraft orbiting Mars maneuvered them into safe positions on the furthest side of the planet, so that they did not experience any ill affects from the icy wanderer's dust.

An hour after the passing of the comet, observers are awaiting the bombardment of the Mars atmosphere by the debris ejected from the comet's tail.

Mars is, in this image the much brighter object. Siding Spring - here, it's marked in red. 

Credit: ESA/M. Micheli/D. Abreu

This image of comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) at 4.8 arcminutes from Mars, as seen on 2014 October 19 at 20:20 UT via ESA's Optical Ground Station, equipped with a 1-meter telescope, on Tenerife, Canary Islands.

North is to the left of the frame. The comet was imaged under poor sky conditions, while it was 17° above the southwestern horizon.

High humidity and strong winds also affected the image quality, giving a "fuzzy" appearance to the nearby stars.