Asteroid to hit in January!
Posted by: Ken Salter in Astronomy, Science, tags: asteriod, impact!, mars
And it will be really cool to see if it does. As reported by The Bad Astronomer, there is a 1 in 75 chance this 100 meter asteroid named 2007 WD5 will hit Mars in January causing a several megaton explosion. If it does, perhaps one of the satellites we have in orbit around Mars will be able to snap a few pics of it. No robots will be harmed in the filming of this event.
More info at MSNBC.
2007 Dec 29 Update: Mars Impact Probability Increases to 4 Percent
However, the most likely scenario is that additional observations of the asteroid will allow the uncertainty region to shrink so that a Mars impact is ruled out. In the unlikely event of an impact, the time would be 2008 January 30 at 10:56 UT (2:56 a.m. PST) with an uncertainty of a few minutes.
