At www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2014-026 … NASAs NEOWISE mission has already clocked Comet Siding Spring (which is the 2014 hopeful) and this new comet is set to pass fairly close to Mars next October. The comet is already active – and very dusty. It is still far away, at 335 million miles (estimate) as of January 16th. Conveniently, there are spacecraft orbiting Mars – so a close up view of Siding Spring is in the offing (unless the dust it is emitting causes problems)
Watching comets in the vicinity of Mars
31 January 2014Astronomy