[meteorite-list] Possible that comet will hit mars next year!!!

From: Graham Ensor <graham.ensor_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2013 12:38:24 +0000
Message-ID: <CAJkn+kbYY7HBfY_CVNkjG0=HB=ngNYf0CSS-ub3ciuxqpG0TSA_at_mail.gmail.com>

Has anyone come across this yet...unlikely....but would be quite an event?

Just got this message from my nephew at Oxford Uni...

"There is a (admittedly slight) chance that a recently discovered
comet, C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring), might be on a collision course with
Mars in October 2014. Latest observations certainly include an impact
possibility within the range of error.

If it hits, estimates suggest a 500km wide, 2km deep crater arising
from a ~20 Petaton event. That's something like 4 million times the
(estimated) explosive power of the current global nuclear arsenal.

Would be interesting to watch and see if any of the rovers on the
surface manage to survive such an impact (I would imagine only
possibly Curiosity but keeping lines of communication open with it
might prove difficult). Might make for (eventually, but not in our
lifetimes) some interesting future Martian meteorites."

        http://www.universetoday.com/100298/is-a-comet-on-a-collision-course-with-mars/

Graham
Received on Wed 27 Feb 2013 07:38:24 AM PST