India’s Traffic Woes Continue in Space: Mangalyaan Avoids Collision!
India’s Mars Orbiter Spacecraft “Mangalyaan” had to be repositioned to avoid collision with Comet Siding Spring. ISRO had to take action in order to avoid catastrophe as the comet was on a collision course with the newly inserted orbital satellite.
Siding Spring heads for Mars. NASA’s concept photo.
On Sunday, at 2.27 pm (1827 GMT), Siding Spring, a comet the size of a small mountain swished past Mars at an astounding speed of 2,03,000 kilometers per hour. To capture this unprecedented event, NASA assembled a number of Mars Orbiting satellites and robots on the planet surface. The three Mars orbiters sent were – Mars Odyssey, Mars Reconnaissance and Maven. A European and an Indian spacecraft too were circling around the red planet.
Near miss with Mars!
The comet Siding Spring came close to 1, 39,500 kilometers from Mars, which amounts to less than half the distance between the Earth and the Moon. One of the major concerns that worried scientists was the potential danger of the massive trail of dust that would follow the comet. However, the three Mars orbiters sent by NASA confirmed their healthy status after they hid behind Mars in order to prevent themselves from the trail of dust. This trail of debris included dust, rocks and ice which are believed to have originated more than a billion years ago in the Oort cloud. Oort cloud is located at the peripheries of the solar system and came into being during the first few million years of the birth of the solar system, 4.6 billion years ago. It comes around every few million years and this will be the first time that the Oort Cloud comet will be studied closely and in detail. In all the recorded history no comet has ever come so close to the Earth as this.
Trajectory of Siding Spring comet approaching Mars.
The rovers and the orbiting crafts were able to capture some amazing shots of the comet which are expected to be released soon.
Hubble Telescopes image of the Siding Spring Comet.
Comet Siding Spring Plans for Mars Orbiters to avoid damage from the comet and its trail.
