For the first time in more than million years, Mars had a close shave with a spectacular comet flyby Sunday afternoon.

Astronomers received unprecedented observation of the flyby, thanks to the proximity of robotic probes and satellites on and orbiting Mars.

The so-called ‘Siding Spring’ comet came within a mere hair’s breadth from a collision with Mars. In astronomical terms, that translates to a proximity of 140,000 kilometres from Mars’ surface, or slightly more than one-third of the distance between Earth and the Moon.

Andrew Fazekas, a member of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, told CTV News that the footage from ground telescopes at observatories on earth depict “spectacular views” of the comet passing Mars.

“The photos from the ground are beautiful! You can see Mars is shining a distinctly orange colour and the comet looks like a fuzzy green ball next to it in the same field of view,” Fazekas said following initial views of the flyby.

“It’s really cool to see it because the comet is not supposed to be there,” an elated Fazekas said.

“We’re so fortunate to live in a time where we have technology that gives us a ring side seat to a unique cosmic spectacle,” Fazekas said, as he watched the flyby.

When Siding Spring was detected by an Australian astronomer in January 2013, NASA initially thought it might have originally been on a collision course with Mars.

Fazekas said there was no danger of an impact, but it was considered a “real squeaker.”

That’s good news for the various rovers now on Mars’ surface, but Fazekas notes that NASA’s three orbiters themselves may be in a bit of danger from the pellets by the sand grained-sized particles which are being thrown off by the comet flying at a speed of over 200,000 kilometres per hour.

To reduce the risk, he said, NASA has moved its orbiters so that the planet can act as a shield against the comet’s debris.

Fazekas said astronomers are all waiting with bated breath to see photos captured from NASA’s maven spacecraft.

The rare visit of a long period comet in the inner solar system presents a wealth of learning opportunities too, since it’s been more than a million years since the last flyby.

“The close encounter with the comet going through the actual gas tail of the comet will reveal a lot about the planet… understanding the what the Martian atmosphere is like, what has happened to the climate, to the weather pattern of Mars over millions of years, what has made it barren? “Fazekas said.

“It’s sort of like a time capsule of when the Earth and the sun were born five billion years ago. So it’s our first close up look of a comet like this” Fazekas said, calling this “the ultimate cosmological dig site.”

The comet has a nucleus estimated to be at least 0.81 of a kilometre in diameter. The comet originated from the Oort Cloud, which is located on the extreme outer fringe of the solar system and was formed during the first million or two million years of the solar system’s birth 4.6 billion years ago. In the past, Siding Spring has not ventured closer than the sun and other orbits like Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, or Neptune.

“We can’t get to an Oort Cloud comet with our current rockets… so this comet is coming to us,” said Carey Lisse, senior astrophysicist in the applied physics laboratory at John Hopkins University.

“Think about a comet that started its travel probably at the dawn of man and it’s just coming in close now,” Lisse said, excited by the prospect of studying Siding Spring’s composition and structure, as well as its possible effects on Mars itself.

It is expected to take less than a week to analyze the data from Mars, while photos from Earth should be available sooner.

Siding Spring is expected to pass closest to the sun six days after it flies by Mars.

It will be another million years before Siding Spring is seen again in the inner solar system.

With files from CTV News and The Associated Press