A comet will make a very close flyby of Mars next weekend and NASA aims for a ringside seat to image and study this historical cosmic event.

NASA officials described how they'll use a number of their assets such the Mars orbiters, rovers and telescopes to observe comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring from various angles and in different lights

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"Normally, you send spacecraft to comets but here, the comet is coming to our spacecraft," said Kelly Fast, Mars program scientist at NASA.

The space agency has been trailing Siding Spring for over a year and will closely monitor it even after the flyby. The information gathered from NASA's robot fleet will likely take a day or two to reach scientists and more than a year to be completely studied.

What makes scientists excited about Siding Spring is the opportunity of having first look at a comet from the edge of the solar system. The event will provide a fresh source of clues about the earliest days of the solar system.

In addition, the close flyby will provide a chance to take the first photograph of a comet from another planet.

"We are ready for a spectacular set of observations, but there are some hazards involved," said director Jim Green from the Planetary Science Division of NASA.

NASA preferred to relocate its satellites to make sure they would be behind Mars during the riskiest part of the approach, which is nwhen the threat of dust impacts will be at its peak.

Discovered Jan. 3, 2013 by Robert McNaught from Siding Spring Observatory in Australia, the comet will swoop to within 139,500 kilometers of the Red Planet's surface.

Siding Spring will come closest to Mars on Oct. 19 at around 2:27 p.m. EDT (11:27 a.m. PDT).

TagsNASA, Siding Spring, Mars, Comet Encounter, C/2013 A1