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

From: Jeff Kuyken <info_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 4 Mar 2013 23:39:57 +1100
Message-ID: <000301ce18d5$630f2280$292d6780$_at_meteorites.com.au>

Just out of curiosity, what could this mean for the space-craft currently
orbiting Mars? I mean even if this misses (which it probably will) a comet
tail is pretty big and I'm sure there would be a lot of debris reaching
Mars. If orbiters go down then I'm assuming the rovers do too. This could
have some consequences many may not have even considered yet.

Cheers,

Jeff


-----Original Message-----
From: meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com
[mailto:meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com] On Behalf Of Graham
Ensor
Sent: Wednesday, 27 February 2013 11:38 PM
To: meteorite list
Subject: [meteorite-list] Possible that comet will hit mars next year!!!

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-ma
rs/

Graham
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Received on Mon 04 Mar 2013 07:39:57 AM PST