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

From: Graham Ensor <graham.ensor_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2013 20:22:40 +0000
Message-ID: <CAJkn+kZWAFzcqstn2bMcAL4=B3-UB8VMb1wgQKnOejVHy=5rKg_at_mail.gmail.com>

Should be amazing for comets over the next couple of years then...

Graham

On Wed, Feb 27, 2013 at 8:03 PM, Jodie Reynolds
<spacerocks at spaceballoon.org> wrote:
> Hello Graham,
>
> With the current orbit from the MPC, my simulation has it missing Mars by a little
> over 700,000km, or about the same distance again from the MRO as MRO
> is from Mars at its furthest (according to what I've read of its
> altitude above the surface).
>
> Of course, I think everyone is anxiously awaiting every update as we
> get closer, to close the gap on uncertainty!
>
> I've yet to be able to dig up orbital elements for MRO. By my
> simulation, HST will be on the other side of the planet from closest
> approach and its view will be occluded. I'd love to figure out where
> MRO will be though - assuming that this first-blush ends-up being
> anywhere close to reality, and MRO is in position to train its
> instrumentation on C/2013 A1, and being the same distance from the
> comet that it is from Mars, the science could be
> _incredibly fortunate_, MRO "paying" for itself twice!
>
> --- Jodie
>
> Wednesday, February 27, 2013, 4:38:24 AM, you wrote:
>
>> 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
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>
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>
>
> --
> Best regards,
> Jodie mailto:spacerocks at spaceballoon.org
>
Received on Wed 27 Feb 2013 03:22:40 PM PST