An Early Look of Comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring): Breathtaker or Nightmare?

Abstract

The dynamically new comet, C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring), is to make a close approach to Mars on 2014 October 19 at 18:30 UT at a distance of 40+/-1 Martian radius. Such extremely rare event offers a precious opportunity for the spacecrafts on Mars to closely study a dynamically new comet itself as well as the planet-comet interaction. Meanwhile, the high speed meteoroids released from C/Siding Spring also pose a threat to physically damage the spacecrafts. Here we present our observations and modeling results of C/Siding Spring to characterize the comet and assess the risk posed to the spacecrafts on Mars. We find that the optical tail of C/Siding Spring is dominated by larger particles at the time of the observation. Synchrone simulation suggests that the comet was already active in late 2012 when it was more than 7 AU from the Sun. By parameterizing the dust activity with a semi-analytic model, we find that the ejection speed of C/Siding Spring is comparable to comets such as the target of the Rosetta mission, 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Under nominal situation, the simulated dust cone will miss the planet by about 20 Martian radius. At the extreme ends of uncertainties, the simulated dust cone will engulf Mars, but the meteoric influx at Mars is still comparable to the nominal sporadic influx, seemly indicating that intense and enduring meteoroid bombardment due to C/Siding Spring is unlikely. Further simulation also suggests that gravitational disruption of the dust tail may be significant enough to be observable at Earth.