Want to create an interactive transcript for this episode?
Podcast: Travelers In The Night
Episode: 58E-70-NASA Mars Spacecraft Prepare For A Close Flyby
Description: Robert McNaught discovered a comet as it was traveling northward from under the plane of the Earth's orbit. He was observing at the Siding Spring Observatory in New South Wales Australia. This object was tracked by telescopes all around the world and named Comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring). It attracted attention as soon as it was realized that it would pass very close to the planet Mars in October of 2014. We have more to worry about a comets close approach today than humans did in 1910 when the Earth passed through the tail of Halley's comet.