WASHINGTON, Oct. 21 (UPI) -- An icy, glowing comet recently whizzed by Mars, forcing NASA to position its orbiting probes on the other side of the Red Planet, shielded from the dust and debris trailing the massive space rock. But even as NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was taking shelter, it was able to capture some closeups of comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring.

According to NASA, the new photos -- captured using the orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera -- are the highest-resolution images ever captured of a comet from the Oort Cloud.

The best shots of the comet's bright nucleus suggest previous estimates as to the size of Silver Spring were inaccurate. In the lead-up to the comet's flyby, astronomers put the nucleus's diameter at roughly half a mile. But the new images, which measure just three pixels across at its brightest point, indicate Silver Spring is not even half the size of astronomers' original estimates.

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NASA orbiter beams back images of Siding Spring comet