Asteroid may hit Mars!

[ohio_eric]

The Associated Press: Asteroid May Hit Mars in Next Month

I'm kinda excited that it might hit. Watching Comet Shumaker-Levy 9 hit Jupiter in 96 was pretty awesome. Seeing an asteroid hit a terrestrial planet would be cool indeed.

I don't think Marvin would take well to it.

Just for giggles here's a couple of online calculator that estimate impact damage. They're loads of fun.

Solar System Collisions

http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/impacteffects/

 

[Leon]

i'm going to have to track this one...

 

[7StringofAblicK]

Very cool stuff

 

[Kagami]

Sweet stuff, wish I had that 5ft scope I had been meaning to buy

 

[newamerikangospel]

Someone should get a video of this if this happens.

 

[7 Strings of Hate]

well of course, tons of people would video it, but the odds are highly in the favor of nothing happening
good find eric

 

[Abhorred]

Oh god, those poor rovers.

Their families must be crushed with the prospect.

 

[ohio_eric]

If it does happen, and I'm hoping it will, nothing Earth bound will have a snowball's chance in Hell of seeing it.

The asteroid itself is fairly small about half a football field and it's not moving very fast as least in astronomical terms. So if it does impact it will likely only leave a crater maybe a few hundred yards across. When you consider Mars is something like 78 million miles away a crater that size is damned hard to see. Fortunately there are satellites orbitting Mars that can photograph the impact.

 

[JesseTheMachine]

Naw dude, they think it'll produce an effect similar to the one in Siberia, that thing flattened like 60 million trees with 15 megatons of force!
I wish it would happen, just so people would get a better idea of the kind of destruction asteroids could potentially cause.

 

[Metal Ken]

Hm, weird. I just started reading "Lucifer's Hammer" A Few days ago.

 

[ohio_eric]

Naw dude, they think it'll produce an effect similar to the one in Siberia, that thing flattened like 60 million trees with 15 megatons of force!
I wish it would happen, just so people would get a better idea of the kind of destruction asteroids could potentially cause.

Even if it does. It will still be very difficult to observe from Earth.

 

[noodles]

An asteroid hitting Mars presents the possibility of unearthing (unmarsing?) all matter of secrets buried beneath the surface. It would be a scientific field day, and an excellent reason to get another rover or two near the crash site as soon as possible.

 

[Despised_0515]

my name is Marvin.


Still gonna be kickass to watch