Asteroid might hit Mars on Wednesday 30.Jan.2008

From the LA Times: Asteroid on track for possible Mars hit

An asteroid, about 160 feet across, could plow into Mars on January 30, 2008.

The chances of a strike are about 1 in 75. This is a very unusual. Most asteroid impacts are calculated with odds like one-in-a-million.

If it does hit it will likely dig a crater half a mile wide. If an asteroid like this were to hit Earth, it could wipe out a city.

No asteroid impact like this has ever been observed anywhere in the Universe.

The most recent one on Earth was the one that flattened forests in Tunguska, Siberia in 1908. But nobody actually saw that and to this day we're not even sure it was actually an asteroid.

Related TT topic: Asteroid could strike Earth in 2029, but with only 1-in-45,000 chance

Ace!!!

Well, Bob, between us I think that darn planet had it coming. 'S been up there in the sky so long, has killed so many of our probes, not to mention all the funny green men who abduct law-abiding citizens just doin their jawb.

It says the dust plume might be visible from Earth through telescopes. I have no idea but how well can you see mars through household telecopes? Are they talking about observatories or backyard style?

I need to get one anyway, but this would be the coolest thing ever to see.

It'd be cooler to see if it hit Earth. Not Munich, obviously. But somewhere like Holzkirchen perhaps. Or Daglfing.

OMG MajorBummer is a planetist i.e. looks down on inferior planets.

Take that, you anal probing bastards!

Darn red planet.

Everytime I'm on the phone with someone on the other side of the world, and it cuts out, I think: It's probably just the connection, but maybe, just maybe...

Then I don't feel the resulting earthquake tremors, and they call back.

Safe this time.

What's the betting it hits the opposite side to the one we can see?

Doesn't a chance of 1:75 mean that it most likely won't happen anyway?

Uh oh! We are all gonna die!

Have you ever been to Nördlingen?...Its located almost at the centre of a crater..! I was there a couple of months back and i looked at the crater from the edge as well as from the top of a tower in Nördlingen..! It is said to be 23 or 24 kms in diameter..!

If you dont know the fact that it was hit by a meteor ages back, you would probably not notice the crater and think about the elevated surroundings as any other hill or mountain.

I have been there - its called Nördlinger Ries. You should to to the Nördlinger Rieskrater-Museum...

I have also flown around the Ries several times. In excellent weather where the cumulus clouds are popping all over the place the Ries is barren of such thermals...

It'd be even cooler if it were actually to threaten Mars, but that just before expected impact the oft discussed, but never discovered Martian race switched on a repulsive ray to deflect it deftly onto the Whitehouse lawn. That'd wag a few chins and maybe have Bush turn his attention to new imaginary foe prior to his departure from the human race..

No. But I remember the impact well. It felt as if millions of voices all cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.

Correct, but the big deal is that is less likely to not happen than ever before!

No, not the Whitehouse lawn...that would ensure that Bush became larger than life after death. They might even rename the Whitehouse after him! I would much rather he went back to Texas at the end of his second term and lived out his life on the speaking circuit.

If an asteroid falls in a Siberian forest and no one is there to see it, did it really happen?

If a man speaks in a Siberian forest and no woman is there to hear him, would he still be wrong?

Do you think that we animals on this earth are so dumb after all the technology and innovative stuff that we invented? Dont you know that when an asteroid strikes, its gonna rattle the earth? (unless if its a very small piece) And so, there are seismograph's everywhere which can record the activity and figure out what really happened. How do you think the defence department of a particular country finds out when some other country has tested some nuclear bomb or any other thing which rattles earth's @ss? (even if its subtle, i guess there are patterns through which you can figure that out)

Even with a 1 in 2 chance of hitting, I won't be up waiting for it. All these reports are just desperate fantasies of the media and scientists to have something for us to talk about. I bet my right Doc Merten's boot that we will sleep right through this and other silly attention grabbing cosmic predictions. Happy New Year Everyone! May all your wishes be fulfilled.

Viet

The impact probability was increased three days ago from 1.3% to 3.9%.

That means it's still unlikely to hit but the unlikelihood is now likely to be less unlikely.

See NASA: Mars impact probability increases to 4 percent

Well, there was Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 which ploughed into Jupiter back in 1994. OK, that was a comet and not an asteroid, but if you're right at the impact site watching it zoom in on you, that fine distinction may seem irrelevant.


I may be wrong, but I would guess that you would need something much more powerful than a small amateur telescope to be able to see anything of the impact.

Sometimes I wonder what would happen if astronomers were to spot a huge chunk of rock headed on a direct collision course with Earth. I don't mean with something like a 1-in-100 chance, but suppose they spotted something that is going to slam into us with absolute certainty in only a few days time. No time to evacuate a whole continent, or organise an operation to fire off nuclear missiles to deflect it away from us. Nothing anyone can do. Would they make a public announcement, and unleash worldwide blind panic? Or would they keep quiet and pretend they hadn't noticed anything? I once asked a professional astronomer who specialised in comets, what the plans would be for such a situation. I got the feeling he was trying to avoid giving a straight answer, but he finally replied: "Oh well, if it was heading for our side of the planet, we would just go round to the other side".

I'm sure they'd turn up here eventually.

"Toytown Germany: advising scientists on how to break the news on imminent ELE asteroid strikes since...fuck it, you're all gonna die."

So what are the chances it hits one of the Mars rovers?

And Greentea beat me to it.

Shoemaker-Levy nine. Big deal all over the news. 1994 wasn't it ???

Or has the skynews dominated media of the noughties made us all so vapid we only remember things for 5 mintues until the next breaking news.

O speaking of that - check this out...classic!!

http://www.jibjab.com/originals/what_we_call_the_news

I have it on good authority that you should not bother stocking up on condoms.

Collectively, the human race has enough firepower to blow up this planet several times over. Yet you kind of get the feeling they haven't really noticed that a rock the size of a quarry hurtling unseen towards us could be a more appropriate target of that firepower... and investment, which on the eve of another year makes me wonder even more if our leaders are more than just a bunch of muppets.

And as far as a celestial object smacking into a celestial body there's no difference whatsoever.


Not even close. We don't even have enough to wipe out so many humans that the species wouldn't return.

woof.

You would definitely not be able to see it with a backyard telescope.

There's a big difference, in astronomy terms, between Shoemaker-Levy hitting Jupiter and this asteroid hitting Mars.

Jupiter is a gas giant whereas Mars is a terrestrial planet.

There's no crater, for example, on Jupiter from the Shoemaker-Levy impact.

I think we can not blow it up no matter what, as no country has a rocket (probably a regular nuclear missile's accelaration will not be enough to leave earth) that can shoot an astreoid in the space nor they have technology for aiming. I think we would pray that atmosphere disintegrates it before it hits the ground.

What would this impact mean for the little green men? Will they become extinct? Why does no one here write about what really matters!

Well, there is a theory out there that life on Earth had its origins in just such an event, i.e. life could have developed originally on Mars, and an asteroid could then have struck Mars, sending chunks of rock contaminated with little green microbes hurtling towards Earth ... and the rest is history. So if you see a reddish-brown rock crashing into your back garden with a terrified little green man clinging to it, be kind to him - he might just be your distant cousin.

Another article on this topic on Space.com yesterday: Asteroid's Martian Impact: What Might Happen

Well, it looks like someone has just been having a think: H.R.4917 To formulate situation and decision analyses for deflecting and mitigating potentially hazardous near-Earth objects.

Looks like it ain't gonna happen this time: Space Rock Won't Wallop Mars, Scientists Say


The little green men can breathe a sigh of relief.

Yeah, I read that too. Face it, it was never gonna hit Mars in the first place because...

Oh!

RUN!!!