Astronomers say asteroid could hit Mars

Monday, December 24, 2007

Astronomers have discovered an asteroid that is approximately 160 feet long, that may be on a collision course for Mars and may hit the planet sometime in early 2008.

Since the discovery of asteroid 2007 WD5 on November 20, 2007, scientists at NASA's Near-Earth object Office have been tracking it, and say that the asteroid could come within 48,000 kilometers of the planet around January 30, 2008.

"Right now asteroid 2007 WD5 is about half-way between Earth and Mars and closing the distance at a speed of about 27,900 miles per hour. Over the next five weeks, we hope to gather more information from observatories so we can further refine the asteroid's trajectory," said Don Yeomans, manager of the Near Earth Object Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

It may also hit near the area where the Opportunity Rover is currently exploring, but scientists say that the rover is outside of the zone of possible impact.

The current odds of the asteroid hitting the planet are 1 in a 75 chance that it will make its impact on or around that date.

"These odds are extremely unusual. We frequently work with really long odds when we track...threatening asteroids. We know that it's going to fly by Mars and most likely going to miss, but there's a possibility of an impact," said Steve Chesley, an astronomer with the Near Earth Object Office.

Have an opinion on this story? Share it!

Sources

"Asteroid Could Strike Mars in Early 2008" — Voice of America, December 22, 2007
"Astronomers Monitor Asteroid to Pass Near Mars" — NASA, December 21, 2007
Alicia Chang. "Asteroid May Hit Mars in Next Month" — Associated Press, December 21, 2007

This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.

Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.

The text of this article is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License