[NormsRevenge]

Near-Earth Object Program

NASA

[cripplecreek]

Heck of a way to take out a rover but it would be worth it.

[mvpel]

Wow, that’d be pretty sweet, and an incredible scientific opportunity.

[Mr_Moonlight]

Men and the rich hit hardest !

......... (men are from Mars, woman are from Venus)

[theymakemesick]

"Scientists tracking the asteroid, which is halfway to Mars..."

Halfway to Mars from where? Oh, it's an AP article, agenda trumps reporting ability, nevermind.

[Vince Ferrer]

If it misses, we should seriously study the feasibility of being able to push it into a collision. That would create a bunch of tech, and scientific knowledge. And it would totally rock.

[Cobra64]

That’ll be a hell of a carbon footprint.

[Waco]

Does algorejr have anything to do with this?

[kAcknor]

NASA is doing nothing for it's creditability when saying things like this:

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.

If they can't even say it will hit (75 to one?) how can they possibly say the rover is outside the impact zone if it does? I mean, the odds are good that it is, since the 'zone' is currently larger than the entire planet, but come on.

[Bender2]

All you folks who hate the space program and scream it is a waste of money, watch this 'cause it is just a preview of what is going to happen here sooner or later.

When it does happen, I hope my kinfolk are on the Moon, Mars or trekking out to the stars rather than dying like the kinfolk of you money saving pudknockers!

[668 - Neighbor of the Beast]

Isn’t that the Vice President’s birthday?

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

The sky is falling........ but on Mars! :-)

[BereanBrain]

Ah, well we recently had Shoemaker-Levy crash into Jupiter, now this *may* happen to Mars, and yet, we are ASSURED that there is NO CHANCE anything like that could happen to the Earth.

Kinda like both neighors on your block winning the Lotto in the same week.

Sings in the Heavens anyone?

[Williams]

They just discovered this and it might hit in January. Reminds me that (either Shoemaker or Levy) said it is likely we will not spot an Earth threatening asteroid until after it enters our atmosphere.

[dfwgator]

"Where's the Ka-Boom?"

[El Gato]

Scientists tracking the asteroid, which is halfway to Mars,

Halfway from where?

[Robert A Cook PE]

OK, I’ve got a hard spot with this:

They assign a 1 in 75 chance of the asteroid hitting Mars - which is fine, orbital uncertainties in a multi-body calculation are a given even this close to a (potential) impact date.

Then the writer claims that the on-ground Mars camera is “outside the impact zone” (of the crater). If they aren’t sure of any impact at all, how can they claim that any given spot below is away from the zone?

Are they placing it in an alternate hemisphere (possible north pole impact while the camera is at the equator?) Other side of the planet (day impact side/night lander side ?)

Neither case is implied.

Let us hope that the impact is on our visible side, and that the orbital cameras are usable that direction.

[burzum]

Here is the orbit viewer (recommend centering on Mars and then zooming in):

http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=2007%20WD5;orb=1;cov=0;log=0#orb

[aruanan]

The asteroid, known as 2007 WD5, was discovered in late November and is similar in size to the Tunguska object that hit remote central Siberia in 1908, unleashing energy equivalent to a 15-megaton nuclear bomb that wiped out 60 million trees.

Nobody really knows the size of the Tunguska object and wasn't it actually supposed to have been in the 3-5 megaton range?

[djf]

Uh Oh......

Crawl for your lives!!!!