Jan13 Written by:admin
Sunday, January 13, 2008
The risk that an asteroid will hit Mars on 30 January has dropped to 1 in 10,000, essentially ruling out an impact, NASA researchers say.
The asteroid, called 2007 WD5, was discovered on 20 November 2007 and initial calculations suggested the 50-metre space rock had a 1 in 75 chance of striking Mars on 30 January.
Further observations briefly suggested the chance of an impact was as high as 1 in 25. But recent observations by a number of telescopes around the world have pinned down the asteroid's orbit well enough to basically exclude the possibility of a strike.
Researchers at NASA's Near Earth Object Program in Pasadena, California, US, calculate that the asteroid will come no closer than 4000 kilometres from the Red Planet's surface on 30 January.
Because the asteroid was headed for Mars rather than Earth, some scientists had been rooting for an impact so they could try to observe the event from orbit. They also hoped to observe the resulting crater, which was estimated to span about 1 kilometre across. Most of the planet's known craters are ancient and are therefore coated with dust.
The chance that 2007 WD5 could have hit Mars highlighted the risk that a similar space rock could one day slam into Earth.
NASA says that within a few years, it should find 90% of potentially dangerous asteroids larger than 1 kilometre across. But smaller space rocks such as 2007 WD5 may go undetected until shortly before a possible impact, meaning the only recourse would be to evacuate any populated areas that appeared to lie in its path.
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