[PapaBear3625]

the thermal pulse due to comet passage lasts approximately 5 hours and deposits on the order of 10^13 Joules in the Martian upper atmosphere.

Expressed that way, it seems like a lot of heat energy. Keep in mind, though, that a joule is a watt-second, so a kilowatt hour is 1000 * 3600 = 3.6 * 10^6 joules. So that energy release is about what you would get if 370,000 people ran their 1500 watt hair dryers for the 5 hour duration.

Effect on the surface temperature of Mars? Too small to measure.

[Yosemitest]

Obviously not,
or they wouldn't have run a model on it, and they wouldn't send more satellites to observe it,
so IT IS OF CONCERN TO NASA.


ScienceCasts: Collision Course? A Comet Heads for Mars ( 5:08 )

[cripplecreek]

Kinda like the fact that yearly meteor showers on earth don’t cook us.