I’m safe and sound, tweets MOM after comet sighting

Images and data sent by the orbiter are being processed

Within hours of the comet’s encounter around Sunday midnight , the NASA and the European Space Agency put out separate reports to say their rovers and orbiters are healthy and safe after the comet’s visit.

“Phew! Experience of a lifetime. Watched the # MarsComet#SidingSpring whizzing past the planet. I'm in my orbit, safe and sound.”

Apart from that tweet on behalf of the Indian Mars orbiter on Monday afternoon — that it watched the comet fly by and that the spacecraft itself is fine in the dusty aftermath — the suspense must continue for a while about what exactly the Indian Mars orbiter saw on Sunday night over the Martian skies.

Phew! Experience of a lifetime. Watched the >#MarsComet>#SidingSpring whizzing past the planet. I'm in my orbit, safe and sound.

— ISRO's Mars Orbiter (@MarsOrbiter) >October 20, 2014

ISRO officials involved in the Mars Orbiter Mission(MOM) said the images and data that MOM sent were being processed as on Monday evening. The first pictures could be made public in a couple of days while data on the comet may take longer to interpret. There was an hour’s communication blackout during the comet’s fly-by that happened millions of kilometres away from Earth. The information was retrieved from recorded and stored data.

Within hours of the comet’s encounter around Sunday midnight , the NASA and the European Space Agency put out separate reports to say their rovers and orbiters are healthy and safe after the comet’s visit. They also posted images of Comet Siding Spring (C/2013 A1) that would make much sense to professional star-gazers.

The comet was visible through powerful telescopes to comet watchers in the southern hemisphere.