Asteroid Could Strike Mars in Late January

Redshift · 22-12-2007 1:33pm #1

A recently discovered asteroid which passed close to the Earth in November, is now headed towards a very close passage by Mars in late January, and there is a small chance that it could hit that planet. The probability of a collision is only 1 chance in 75, but scientists are excited about the possibility. If it happens, the impact would occur on January 30, 2008 at around 10:55 UT (2:55 a.m. PST).

More

IamBeowulf · 26-12-2007 2:43pm

Redshift wrote: »

A recently discovered asteroid which passed close to the Earth in November, is now headed towards a very close passage by Mars in late January, and there is a small chance that it could hit that planet. The probability of a collision is only 1 chance in 75, but scientists are excited about the possibility. If it happens, the impact would occur on January 30, 2008 at around 10:55 UT (2:55 a.m. PST).

More

Is there any danger for us?

Redshift · 26-12-2007 3:49pm

IamBeowulf wrote: »

Is there any danger for us?

Apparently not, if it misses Mars it's trajectory poses no threat to the Earth.

In the likely event that the asteroid misses Mars, it could come back to the vicinity of the Earth years or decades later, but our routine hazard monitoring shows that there is no threat of an impact with the Earth.

bushy... · 26-12-2007 5:09pm

IamBeowulf wrote: »

Is there any danger for us?

Not much , list of items with a death-from-above scale : http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/risk/

Captain Chaos · 27-12-2007 2:54am

IamBeowulf wrote: »

Is there any danger for us?

Its about the same size as the one that hit us in the early 1900s, it exploded in the upper atmosphere and flattened a few hundred miles of forest in Serbia.

But its never going to hit us and the odds of it hitting Mars are very low, that 1 in 75 chance is expected to go down.

Rented Mule · 28-12-2007 3:17pm

Captain Chaos wrote: »

Its about the same size as the one that hit us in the early 1900s, it exploded in the upper atmosphere and flattened a few hundred miles of forest in Serbia.

But its never going to hit us and the odds of it hitting Mars are very low, that 1 in 75 chance is expected to go down.

I believe that you mean the the Tunguska Event which happened in Siberia.

Captain Chaos · 28-12-2007 9:14pm

Rented Mule wrote: »

I believe that you mean the the Tunguska Event which happened in Siberia.

Thats the one, Siberia not feckin Serbia.:o

maquiladora · 29-12-2007 1:29pm

Odds of it hitting Mars have changed from 1 in 75 to 1 in 25.

Captain Chaos · 29-12-2007 9:47pm

maquiladora wrote: »

Odds of it hitting Mars have changed from 1 in 75 to 1 in 25.

Wow:eek:, this could get interesting. I believe the asteroid is currently blocked from our view by the glare from the moon and accurate traking will stating again in a week or so just before the now expected impact.

ivanthehunter · 30-12-2007 3:03am

any update on the time of impact. know of any web sites with better info on this... thanks folks

Captain Chaos · 31-12-2007 12:20am

If it does hit (there is currently a 4% chance it will), it will be on January 30th.

Conor108 · 04-01-2008 4:07pm

1 in 28 chance now according to New Scientist

Captain Chaos · 11-01-2008 2:26am

Not going to hit at all now, latest is 1 in 10,000. The closest it may get will be 40,000km. Thats very close though in astronomical terms.

I suspect this close encounter with Mars will change it's orbit. Hopefully it will still stay out side our orbit.

Asteroid Could Strike Mars in Late January

Comments