A comet provided a spectacular light show for anyone or anything on Mars with a view of the sky — but neither of NASA’s rovers on the red planet were able to catch a glimpse of it.

The comet cruised past Mars and dumped dust in the planet’s atmosphere, which would have been a spectacular show, but the limitations of the Opportunity and Curiosity rovers currently on Mars prevented them from observing the event, according to the New York Times.

Calling it an extremely rare event in human history, University of Colorado planetary scientist Nick Schneider said that thousands of shooting stars from the comet that burned up in the atmosphere had streaked across the Martian sky.

Schneider said that while Opportunity and Curiosity were very high-tech robots, they aren’t ideal for observing such events. Opportunity was able to take some snapshots of the comet, known as Sliding Spring, when it was within 87,000 miles of the planet on Oct. 19, but the rovers “don’t take moves,” NASA’s planetary sciences division director James Gren said.

The spacecraft that orbit Mars were able to observe the dust’s effects, however. The Maven orbiter arrived just weeks before the comet and was able to capture bright colors from it. Maven was able to detect sodium, manganese, nickel, chromium, zinc, and potassium from the comet. Usually, Magnesium makes up 10 percent of a comet’s dust.

The comet was first identified in January 2013 and came from the Oort Cloud, which is about a light year away from Earth. Comets from the Oort Cloud frequently fly through the inner solar system, including the well-known Halley’s Comet.