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Mars spacecraft, including MAVEN, reveal comet flyby effects on

Martian atmosphere
Date: November 7, 2014

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Breaking News:
Comet Flyby Effects On Martian Atmosphere

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Source: University of Colorado at Boulder

Summary: Two NASA and one European spacecraft have gathered new information
about the basic properties of a wayward comet that buzzed by Mars
Oct. 19, directly detecting its effects on the Martian atmosphere. Debris
from the comet, known officially as Comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring,
caused an intense meteor shower and added a new layer of ions, or
charged particles, to the ionosphere.

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Related Topics
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This is an illustration of Maven spacecraft at Mars.
Credit: NASA

[Click to enlarge image]

wo NASA and one European spacecraft, including NASA's MAVEN

mission led by the University of Colorado Boulder, have gathered new
information about the basic properties of a wayward comet that buzzed
by Mars Oct. 19, directly detecting its effects on the Martian atmosphere.
Data from observations carried out by MAVEN, NASA's
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and the European
Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft revealed that
debris from the comet, known officially as Comet
C/2013 A1 Siding Spring, caused an intense meteor
shower and added a new layer of ions, or charged
particles, to the ionosphere. The ionosphere is an
electrically charged region in the atmosphere that
reaches from about 75 miles (120 kilometers) to several
hundred miles above the Martian surface.

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Using the observations, scientists were able to make a
direct connection between the input of debris from the
meteor shower to the subsequent formation of the
transient layer of ions -- the first time such an event has been observed on any planet,
including Earth, said the MAVEN research team.
The comet traveled from the most distant region of our solar system called the Oort

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Oct. 20, 2014 NASA's newest

orbiter at Mars, MAVEN, took
precautions to avoid harm from a dust-spewing
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Cloud and made a close approach at 2:27 p.m. EDT within about 87,000 miles
(139,500 kilometers) of the Red Planet. That is less than half the distance between
Earth and our moon and less than one-tenth the distance of any known comet flyby of
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nucleus in opposite ... full story
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"MAVEN is well suited for studying the effects of the dust from the comet in the
Martian atmosphere, because it makes measurements at the altitudes where the dust
was expected to have an effect," said CU-Boulder Professor Bruce Jakosky of the
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, the principal investigator on the $671
million Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) mission. "We also should
be able to see if there are long-term effects from the comet dust in that same region of
the atmosphere."
Dust from the comet was vaporized high in the Martian atmosphere, producing what
was likely an impressive meteor shower. The debris resulted in significant but
temporary changes to the planet's upper atmosphere and possible longer-term
changes. A host of Earth-based and orbiting telescopes also observed the unique
celestial event.
The MAVEN spacecraft, recently arrived at Mars, detected the comet encounter in two
ways. The remote-sensing Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph (IUVS) designed and built
at CU-Boulder observed intense ultraviolet emissions from magnesium and iron ions
high in the atmosphere in the aftermath of the meteor shower. Not even the most
intense meteor storms on Earth have produced as strong a response as this one: The
emission dominated Mars' ultraviolet spectrum for several hours after the encounter
and then dissipated over the next two days, according to the MAVEN science team.
MAVEN also was able to directly sample and help scientists determine the
composition of some of the vaporized comet dust in Mars' atmosphere. Analysis of
these samples by the spacecraft's Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer designed
and developed at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland,
detected eight different types of metal ions, including sodium, magnesium and iron.

Space & Time

These are the first direct measurements of the composition of dust from an Oort Cloud
comet. The Oort Cloud, well beyond the outermost planets that surround our sun, is a
spherical region of icy objects believed to be material left over from the formation of the
solar system.

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"They call this comet encounter a once-in-a-lifetime event, but it's more like once-in-amillion years," said CU-Boulder Associate Professor Nick Schneider, a LASP research
associate and lead IUVS scientist for the mission. "MAVEN got there just in time, and
we were ready. The numbers suggest a Martian would have seen many thousands of
shooting stars per hour -- possibly enough to be called a meteor storm -- so it must
have been a spectacular event that night on Mars."

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Elsewhere above Mars, a joint U.S. and Italian instrument on Mars Express observed a
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comet in a way never before possible using our existing Mars missions," said Jim
Green, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division at the agency's headquarters in
Washington. "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 harms way."
Story Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by University of Colorado at
Boulder. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Chicago

University of Colorado at Boulder. "Mars spacecraft, including MAVEN, reveal

comet flyby effects on Martian atmosphere." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 7
November 2014. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/11/141107154730.htm>.

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