An Asteroid Headed Near the Red Planet

Mars can easily be described as a red planet speckled with several craters across its entire rocky surface. Recently, scientists have discovered that another crater might be added onto this planet’s exterior. According to astronomers from NASA’s Near Earth Object Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, there is a one in seventy-five chance for the asteroid entitled 2007 WD5 to impact the surface of Mars. This 164-foot wide asteroid was recently discovered on November 20, 2007 by the Catalina Sky Survey sponsored by NASA. Scientists at JPL that were tailing the orbit of this asteroid hypothesized that 2007 WD5 will pass by Mars at a distance of 30,000 miles at approximately 6 a.m. on January 30^th, 2008. Right now, it is passing halfway between Earth and Mars at a speed of 27,900 miles per hour, according to Don Yeomans, manager of the Near Earth Object Office at JPL. If a collision does occur, it would hit Mars at around 30,000 miles per hour and three megatons of energy would be released from the impact, most probably creating a crater more than half a mile wide. Luckily, with the observations of NASA-funded Spacewatch in Kitt Peak, Arizona and Magdalena Ridge Observatory in New Mexico, it was ruled out that this asteroid would hit the Earth. I feel so ecstatic that this asteroid’s path is not another problem for the world to worry about. Moreover, I would like to see this asteroid hit Mars if I could. In addition, I wonder if this collision would be large enough to spark a burst of life on Mars. This is feasible since this might have occurred on Earth 470 million years ago (see my post “An Impact that Impacted the Earth”). This would make another planet for humans to go to when Earth does not provide the proper necessities for human life. Therefore, this probable meteor collision might be an event worth waiting for.

The information on this post came from this Web site:

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/dec/HQ_07284_Mars_Asteroid.html

The photograph on this post was found on:

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/12/21/asteroid-mars-nasa.html