Mars In Asteroid’s Path

[Geekyfanboy]

Source CNN

Mars could be in for an asteroid hit

If the asteroid strikes Mars, it will probably hit near the equator close to where the rover Opportunity is exploring.

A newly discovered hunk of space rock has a 1 in 75 chance of slamming into the Red Planet on January 30, scientists said Thursday.

"These odds are extremely unusual. We frequently work with really long odds when we track ... threatening asteroids," said Steve Chesley, an astronomer with the Near Earth Object Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The asteroid, known as 2007 WD5, was discovered in late November and is similar in size to an object that hit remote central Siberia in 1908, unleashing energy equivalent to a 15-megaton nuclear bomb and wiping out 60 million trees.

Scientists tracking the asteroid, currently halfway between Earth and Mars, initially put the odds of impact at 1 in 350 but increased the chances this week. Scientists expect the odds to diminish again early next month after getting new observations of the asteroid's orbit, Chesley said.

"We know that it's going to fly by Mars and most likely going to miss, but there's a possibility of an impact," he said.

If the asteroid does smash into Mars, it will probably hit near the equator close to where the rover Opportunity has been exploring the Martian plains since 2004. The robot is not in danger because it lies outside the impact zone. Speeding at 8 miles a second, a collision would carve a hole the size of the famed Meteor Crater in Arizona.

In 1994, fragments of the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 smacked into Jupiter, creating a series of overlapping fireballs in space. Astronomers have yet to witness an asteroid impact with another planet.

"Unlike an Earth impact, we're not afraid, but we're excited," Chesley said

[Trekkygeek]

I remember waiting for those asteroids to hit Jupiter back then, and the result was spectacular. If this asteroid does hit Mars, I hope the results can be caught on camera.

[Geekyfanboy]

Asteroid Will Miss Mars - But Not By Much

NASA and JPL have now been determined that asteroid 2007 WD5 will indeed miss Mars scathing by the Red Planet at nearly 3000 miles away, which in space distance is like walking across the street.

The latest bit of data has dropped the chances from 4% to less than 0.01% and will deny astronomical observers a chance to measure and research, first hand, almost immediate effects of an object from space plowing into a planet's surface.

The Mars rover named Opportunity would have been a LIVE observer if the asteroid would have impacted as it was heading in the rover's general location.

[Geekyfanboy]

Mars Safe By Wide Margin

The infamous 2007 WD5 asteroid was once predicted to have a 3 in 1 chance of smashing into the planet Mars causing a real treat for astonomers on Earth. Then as time elapsed, better figures came in, the space scientists began hedging their bets. Then just two weeks ago it was proclaimed that the asteroid would come close but miss the Red planet.

Well, we can report that everybody was wrong. 2007 WD5 flitted past Mars, giving it and whatever life it may or may not have, including those two manmade mechanical marvels, Spirit and Opportunity, a wide berth and whizzed right on by without even so much as a "howdy doo!"

The asteroid missed Mars by a distance of approximately 6.5 Mars radii.