NASA's Hubble Telescope Captures Image Of Mars-Bound Comet

NASA released an image of a comet this week that will pass within 84,000 miles of Mars later on this year.

The comet will pass less than half the distance between Earth and our moon on Oct. 19, according to A NASA press release.

The image was captures on March 11 by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.

The image on the left shows comet C/2013 A1, which is more commonly known as the Siding Spring, at just 353 million miles from Earth.

Hubble can't see Siding Spring's icy nucleus because of its small size, according to the release. The nucleus is surrounded by a glowing dust cloud, or COMA, which measures approximately 12,000 miles across.

The right image meanwhile shows the comet after image processing techniques were applied to eliminate the hazy glow of the coma. The techniques helped reveal what appears to be two jets of dust coming off the nucleus.

Thanks to this observation, astronomers are now able to measure the axis of rotation and the direction of the nucleus's pole.

Hubble previously observed Siding Spring on Jan. 21 as Earth was crossing its orbital plane. The positioning allowed astronomers to figure out the speed of the dust coming off the nucleus, according to the release.

"This is critical information that we need to determine whether, and to what degree, dust grains in the coma of the comet will impact Mars and spacecraft in the vicinity of Mars," said Jian-Yang Li of the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona, according to the release.

The comet was discovered in January 2013 by Robert H. McNaught at Siding Spring Observatory.

It is falling toward the sun along an approximate 1 million year orbit and is now within the radius of Jupiter's orbit, according to the release.

The comet will make its closest approach to Earth's sun on Oct. 25, at just 130 million miles away, though still well outside of Earth's orbit.

The flyby is not expected to be bright enough to be seen by the naked eye, according to the release.