--- description: A comet flew past Mars this week and NASA captured the encounter title: See A Comet's Close Encounter With Mars image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt25c144037badfe3a/6987627455a85902a2a8366c/comet_springs_0.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Science](/section/science/) ## Science Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Space](/tag/space/) ## Space Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # See a Comet's Close Encounter With Mars by [Adam Glanzman](/author/adam-glanzman/) ## Adam Glanzman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 23, 2014 6:21 PM CUT  This composite image captures the positions of comet 'Siding Spring' and Mars in a never-before-seen close passage of a comet by the Red Planet, on Oct. 19, 2014. This composite image captures the positions of comet 'Siding Spring' and Mars in a never-before-seen close passage of a comet by the Red Planet, on Oct. 19, 2014.PSI/JHU/APL/STScI/AU/ESA/NASA by [Adam Glanzman](/author/adam-glanzman/) ## Adam Glanzman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 23, 2014 6:21 PM CUT The comet known as “Siding Spring” had a too-close-for-comfort encounter with the Red Planet this week. Traveling at around 125,000mph, the comet missed colliding with Mars by a mere 87,000 miles. That’s about one-third of the distance between the Earth and the Moon — in astronomical terms, a very close encounter. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured the encounter in this composite image. Sadly, it will be another million years before we see comet Siding Spring again, after it completes its orbit around the sun. See an artist’s rendition of the encounter in the video below: ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3534714/mars-comet/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3534714/mars-comet/"},"headline":"See a Comet's Close Encounter With Mars","datePublished":"2014-10-23T18:21:46.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T10:58:48.337Z","description":"A comet flew past Mars this week and NASA captured the encounter","url":"https://time.com/3534714/mars-comet/","keywords":["Space","NASA","Mars","Comet"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt25c144037badfe3a/6987627455a85902a2a8366c/comet_springs_0.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Adam Glanzman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/adam-glanzman/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt25c144037badfe3a/6987627455a85902a2a8366c/comet_springs_0.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"This composite image captures the positions of comet 'Siding Spring' and Mars in a never-before-seen close passage of a comet by the Red Planet, on Oct. 19, 2014.","caption":"This composite image captures the positions of comet 'Siding Spring' and Mars in a never-before-seen close passage of a comet by the Red Planet, on Oct. 19, 2014.","creditText":"PSI/JHU/APL/STScI/AU/ESA/NASA","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/space/","name":"Space"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3534714/mars-comet/","name":"See a Comet's Close Encounter With Mars"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"See An Artist's Rendition Of Siding Spring's Encouter With Mars","description":"See an artist's rendition of the comet's encounter with Mars","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/fVAswBXU/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-10-23T17:57:48.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/fVAswBXU.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3534714/mars-comet/","duration":"PT1M6S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3534714/mars-comet/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```