An asteroid hurtling towards Mars has a one in 75 chance of chance of scoring a direct hit on the red planet next month, NASA experts said in a statement Friday.

The US space agency's Near Earth Object Program (NEOP) revealed that the asteroid's exact course was difficult to predict, but said it could slam into Mars on January 30, leaving a crater measuring an estimated 1 kilometer across.

A collision with Mars would be likely to send an enormous dust cloud into the planet's atmosphere.

The asteroid, believed to measure around 50 meters (160 feet) across, had already passed within 7.5 million kilometers (5 million miles) of Earth in early November.

 

one in 75

I'll bet it misses

 

 

[QUOTE=vtecmom,Dec 22 2007, 09:54 AM]one in 75

I'll bet it misses

 

mmmmmmmmmmmm

lets turn this into a candy bar tread :snickers: while exiting

 

I hope it hits.

 

Even if it doesn't... Mars is still doomed. It's also experiencing global warming. I guess those crazy martians won't stop using fossil fuel.

 

maybe RB will witness this first hand thru his really BIG scope

 

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

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. The Global surveyor orbiting Mars will have a ringside seat. 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 the back side of Jupiter, creating a series of overlapping fireballs in space. Astronomers have yet to witness an asteroid impact with another planet.

Unlike an Earth impact, Astronomers are not afraid, but excited by the prospect of impact.