The view from Mars…

…POSSIBLY!!! 🙂

While amateur astronomers around the world are counting off the days until first Comet PANSTARRS and then Comet ISON appear in the sky, some bloggers and astronomy enthusiasts have noted that ISON will have a close encounter with the planet Mars on October 1st, as it heads in towards the Sun, and are wondering if it might be possible for either of the rovers currently exploring the Red Planet to photograph it. Never one to pass up a question like that, I fired up my STARRY NIGHT planetarium software, plonked myself down in Gale Crater, close to Curiosity’s landing site, and had a look…

It turns out that Curiosity (And Opportunity too, tho I haven’t checked that out properly yet) might get great views of ISON, and might actually – if they have the power and time to, and are commanded to by their Terran overlords – have a chance to photograph the comet and Earth close together in the sky!

How bright will ISON appear from Mars? We can’t know that yet, just as we can’t know how bright it will appear from Earth. How long will its tail be? Again, we can’t know that in advance. All we can do is figure out *where* it will be in the martian sky, and hope that Opportunity and/or Curiosity receives orders to take its picture, at least once, as it passes Earth in the martian twilight.

So, as is the case with all the other planetarium-generated images on this blog, the following images should ONLY – repeat, ONLY!!! – be used as rough guides to help you appreciate WHERE ISON might appear be in the martian sky. The tail lengths shown are not to be trusted, because the comet might be a lot more or a lot less active than shown here, with a lot longer or shorter tail, and its dust tail (these images essentially just show the direction of the gas tail, which blows straight away from the Sun) can’t be calculated accurately in advance, because we can’t know in advance how much crud will fly off the nucleus to form that tail! But, having said that, these crude images do provide a fascinating glimpse of what might be possible for the rovers  to see and photograph from Mars. Let’s hope they’re given time, and orders, to do that…! 🙂

Not too long after sunset on October 1st the tail of Comet ISON might be visible peeping up from behind the horizon… as darkness falls the comet will begin to wheel across the northern sky, its tail sweeping like the hand of a clock…

After sunset on October 5th, the comet will be pointing towards a blue star hanging above the western horizon… but that’s no “star”.. that’s…

By October 17th ISON and Earth will be much closer together…

By October 25th the comet will really be zeroing in on the Sun, and will have dropped beneath Earth in the martian twilight…

November 5th, and as comet watchers on Earth start to get giddy with excitement and expectation, from Mars ISON will be dropping away from Earth and will be shining very close to Venus after sunset…

By Nov 10th the comet will have passed Venus…

By the 20th, with “Comet Fever” sweeping across Earth, Curiosity and Opportunity will see its tail, like this, after sunset, with a pair of planets above and to its right…

November 28th, and by now millions of people around the world are looking for ISON in the daytime sky, hoping to catch a glimpse of it shining close to the disc of the Sun. From Mars, the rovers might see its long tail beaming up from the horizon (but AGAIN, this software can’t accurately predict such things, so just take this as a guide to WHERE the rovers would be looking if they try and take photos…)

By sunset on the next day the comet, as seen from Mars, will have swung around the Sun…

…and by sunset on the 30th the tail should be clear of the horizon again… comet experts are in agreement that at this time the comet’s dust tail will *really* start to grow, so maybe there’ll be a wonderful view for the rovers to capture after sunset as November ends…

So, yes, it will be possible for both Curiosity and Opportunity to see the comet from their respective sites, the question is will they be ordered to take photographs of it. I hope so, oh god, I hope so, because this opportunity may never come around again. And the chance to have not one but TWO rovers on Mars, taking pictures of a bright comet shining close to Earth in the sky is too good to pass up, surely? Surely they HAVE to try and take some photos of such an incredible conjunction?

If they do, I wonder if they would look anything like any of these images I’ve made…? NOTE: these images are purely for fun, I am NOT saying “The comet would look like this if they took photos of it”, ok?

I wonder if Opportunity might see anything like this in late Sept/early October, as the comet passes close to Mars..?

But again, at the risk of sounding like a stuck CD, please bear in mind these are just **IMAGINARY** views, I’m not claiming these are accurate or anything. They’re just for fun. ( Unless they turn out to be even slightly accurate, in which case Ha! I TOLD you it would look like this!!! 🙂 )

As far as I know there aren’t even any plans for the rovers to try to take images of ISON… but they will have a go, surely? I mean, come on… a bright comet… close to Earth in the sky… seen from the surface of another world..? Why *wouldn’t* you have a dozen kick-ass ameras on Mars and NOT try to photograph that? 🙂