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Dec 20, 2007 11:20 pm US/Central
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Asteroid May Slam Mars In January
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 1994, 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.
(© 2008 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)