Siding Spring, officially called C/2013 A1, made its closest approach to the Red Planet on 19 October, at a distance of approximately 87 thousand miles. At that time, the comet and Mars were about 149 million miles from Earth.
"The Mars and comet images have been added together to create a single picture to illustrate the angular separation, or distance, between the comet and Mars at closest approach". The separation is of about 1.5 arcminutes, or one twentieth of the angular diameter of the full moon, reported Prensa Latina News Agency quoting NASA.(KH)
