(meteorobs) Asteroid May Hit Mars in Next Month

[Wayne Watson]

Clean your lenses for this one! Maybe we'll see some debris headed our way.


  Asteroid May Hit Mars in Next Month

By ALICIA CHANG, AP Science Writer

Thursday, December 20, 2007

(12-20) 20:03 PST LOS ANGELES, (AP) --

Mars could be in for an asteroid hit. A newly discovered hunk of space 
rock has a 1 in 75 chance of slamming into the Red Planet on Jan. 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 2004, 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.