Thanks BenLurkin.
NASA says Comet 2013 A1, also known as Comet Siding Spring, is almost certain to miss Mars on Oct. 19, 2014... less than a 1-in-600 chance [of impact]
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Posted on 03/10/2013 3:00:28 PM PDT by BenLurkin
A supermassive doomsday comet is heading toward the planet in 2014, and there's nothing anyone can do about it.
The comet presents a good-news, bad-news situation for the Red Planet, and for us earthlings as well. NASA says Comet 2013 A1, also known as Comet Siding Spring, is almost certain to miss Mars on Oct. 19, 2014. However, there's still a chance — a less than a 1-in-600 chance — that Mars could be hit, due to the remaining uncertainty about the comet's path. That uncertainty is likely to be cleared up over the next few months, eventually resulting in an all-clear.
The case of Comet Siding Spring led Henry Vanderbilt, founder of the Space Access Society, to ask a scary what-if question. "If it was coming straight at us (no more or less likely than it coming straight at Mars) .... could we do anything about it other than prepare to die?" he wrote in a posting to the Moon and Back blog. "The short answer is: Maybe."
The comet's size is the most worrisome part of the story. Based on its observed brightness, astronomers estimate that the iceball could be anywhere from 9 to 30 miles (15 to 50 kilometers) in diameter. In comparison, the asteroid... blamed for killing off the dinosaurs 65 million years ago is thought to have been 6 miles (10 kilometers) in diameter.
A direct hit on Mars' backside wouldn't tear the planet apart, but it would produce an explosion that Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait estimates at somewhere around a billion megatons of TNT. That would create a huge crater, blast tons of debris into space and perhaps set off a flood reminiscent of the one that washed over Marte Vallis millions of years ago.
On Earth, the impact would be a civilization-killer.
(Excerpt) Read more at cosmiclog.nbcnews.com ...
Dude, you better not Wie in the Bong
Bull.. it would be like a bowling ball hit by a BB 5 miles away..
No danger to earth..
Maybe the Mayans knew what they were talkin’ about?
Hi def imagery of the impact could re-ignite the space program.
Successful selling always involves emotion. Terror is an excellent selling tool.
If we taxed the rich more...it won’t hit Mars.../s
Oh...and as long as Muslims aren’t affected....no big deal.
We already HAVE a civilization-killer. It’s called “Islam”
Uh oh! I think I know what’s going to replace global warming. I’m sure higher taxes will fix it though.
“If it was coming straight at us (no more or less likely than it coming straight at Mars)”
Actually a bit more likely to hit us, as we’re a bigger target.
I also wonder if any Democrats will pick up on a pattern if we see a comet smash into Jupiter, and then another smash into Mars 20 years later.
well, I guess it could throw debris into space that SOMEDAY could cross orbits with the Earth.
but that cannot be predicted at all
There is some evidence that the KT Impact and other big ones were primarily comets.
Some large object may be knocking numbers of bodies loose in the Oort Cloud changing their orbits and sending them to the inner Solar System. There appears to be a cycle of bombardment of Earth with a period of about 33 million years.
KT was about 65M yrs ago.
If this hypotheses is correct, we are due for a bombardment. Maybe the recent Russian blast was just a taste of what is to come.
I think I need to publish my treatise on how to survive an ELE (Extinction Level Event).
It can be done.
I was wondering at the time if Shoemaker-Levee was a warning by ETs.
We gotta get off this rock!
“That uncertainty is likely to be cleared up over the next few months,...”
By who, the East Anglia scientists?
It may have already happened to Mars, several thousand years ago, in early but historic times. Read “Worlds In Collision” by Immanuel Velikovsky (1950) for an interesting theory.
I just put my copy of “Worlds In Collision” into storage.
My timing always stinks.....
NASA says Comet 2013 A1, also known as Comet Siding Spring, is almost certain to miss Mars on Oct. 19, 2014... less than a 1-in-600 chance [of impact]
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