Meteor shower triggered as Comet Siding Spring whizzed by Mars

Scientists at NASA have observed Comet Siding Spring whizz very close by the red planet. The dust from Mars also went into the comet’s atmosphere. More deeper investigations by scientists are still on, about this particular incident, which is a rarest of its kind. “The comet’s dust slammed into the upper atmosphere, creating a massive and dense ionospheric layer, and literally changed the chemistry of the upper atmosphere,” commented Jim Green, the director of the NASA Planetary Science Division.

Scientists also don’t yet know what to make out of this whole thing. They have said that they believe this is Comet Siding Springs very first time, of entering the inner Solar System. Green said, “Observing the effects on Mars of the comet’s dust slamming into the upper atmosphere makes me very happy that we decided to put our spacecraft on the other side of Mars at the peak of the dust tail passage and out of harm’s way.” The Comet’s orbit closest to the inner part of the solar system has only been about one light year, that is 50,000 times of that of the distance, which prevails in between Sun and planet Earth.

The scientists at NASA explained how the comet is a trace of the early solar system, and has been surviving all this while due to having lived in such super cold environment, a region of icy bodies. Hence to carry out further investigations on the comets, links will have to be traced to the early solar system, and only those could solve the puzzles. There have been around four to five comets of such type which pass by each year, but cannot be captured through satellite as they’re way more faster. They have also said that ‘never before’ have there been any observations traced to have an Oort Cloud comet come this close to the solar system’s inner portions.