Chance for a Tunguska Sized Impact on Mars

Multiple users have written to tell us of an LA Times report that an asteroid may hit Mars on January 30th. The asteroid is roughly 160 feet across, and JPL-based researchers say that it will have a 1-in-75 chance of striking Mars. Those odds are very high for this type of event, and scientists are hoping to witness an impact of a similar scope to the Tunguska disaster. From the LA Times: "Because scientists have never observed an asteroid impact -- the closest thing being the 1994 collision of comet Shoemaker-Levy with Jupiter -- such a collision on Mars would produce a 'scientific bonanza,' Chesley said."

Glad it's not us, eh?

[Loibisch]

[...] and scientists are hoping to witness an impact of a similar scope to the Tunguska disaster.

Won't somebody PLEASE think of the marsians? :(

that's kind of mean isn't it

[Martian_Kyo]

From the article:

"Normally, we're rooting against the asteroid," when it has Earth in its cross hairs, Chesley said. "This time we're rooting for the asteroid to hit."

For all we know mars is a lifeless planet, but still....rooting for the asteroid to hit is just plain mean, bad karma. I hope it doesn't hit. Not only because of my ...uhmmmm.... nickname connection.

Has someone

[nrgy]

informed the UAC base on Mars of the impending DOOM that is heading there way?

scientific bonanza?

[rucs_hack]

Um, so first a huge collection of rocks smacks into Jupiter, now another may hit Mars, and they're excited?

They sound awfully like ranging shots to me, I'm more inclined to get Venus to light the third cigarette and then be wery, wery, qwiet...

UAC ?

[hostyle]

Windows has detected an incoming Asteroid.

If you started this action, continue.

  [Continue] [Cancel]

User Account Control helps stop unauthorized changes to your planet.

Re:Glad it's not us, eh?

[Farmer Tim]

Marsia, Marsia, Marsia!

(And with that Brady bunch quote goes the last shreds of my geek cred.)

Re:Glad it's not us, eh?

[Drasil]

The Martians will be fine. The Old Ones just need to grok the rock and remove it from the universe, at which point there will be nothing to see here.

beagle...

[apodyopsis]

Get the cameras rolling, I'm sure it'll be a better impact then the Beagle meteorite simulation of a few years ago.

:-)

(I do feel bad for poking fun at Beagle, many people much smarter then me put a lot of work into that probe.)

Re:New rover mission?

[Jugalator]

They'd need funding for another rover mission though... But let's tell Bush that "fresh soil" almost sounds like "fresh oil" and maybe he'll approve. :-)

Re:Has someone

[iainl]

God mode is all very well for you personally. But how do you plan on saving the rest of us by shooting down an asteroid when you can't look up?

Sorry Mate...

[PinkyDead]

Prime Directive and all that.

Re:Occluded for 2 weeks??? Bull****

[Tenebrarum]

The article makes it sound like the asteroid will be hiding behind the moon for the entire period, when that can't possibly be the case.

Intelligent asteroid?

Re:Do the rovers have seismographic instruments?

[6Yankee]

If the picture's upside-down and the rover's not going anywhere, it was a big one.

Article Worthless!

[oni]

This article is worthless to me because it doesn't give information in standard astronomical units of measure. I need to know how many hiroshimas and how many school buses this thing represents!

Statement from the Martian Ambassador

[goodEvans]

Ack ack ack ack, ack-ack ack ack-ack.

Ack, ack ACK-ack-ack, ack-ack ack-ack ack. Ack ack, ack-ack-ack-ack, ack ack ack.

Ack ack,

Ack-ack Ack-ack-ack-ack.

The face on Mars

[The Fun Guy]

Remember the famous Face on Mars [wikipedia.org]?

The Sandia labs simulation of the Tunguska impact [sandia.gov] has its own face - forward the video to 3.13e+00 seconds to see the Face of Tunguska!

Clearly, the Face on Mars is the "thumbprint" of a previous Tunguska event!

Re:It'd be so awesome

[eno2001]

You're completely leaving out the whole Planet X factor and the Niburu race. I don't think the NEAs are as big of a threat as Planet X. And I'm pretty certain that this object that they're talking about is really Planet X but they're not telling us to prevent widespread panic. That object isn't headed for Mars, it's going to pass between Earth and Mars and then the Niburu invasion will begin. From what I've been reading online, the power elite on Earth have made deals with the Niburu to spare their lives and the lives of their families. But the average earth man is doomed to live a life of slavery in the Niburu slave service. If our time stream hadn't been screwed with back in the 50s, we'd be fine. Apparently we were a much more advanced civilization before the 1950s. Pretty much all the "history" that takes place before the earl 50s is artificial. We already had space colonies throughout the galaxy and were trading with other races. But then another alien race messed with our time stream and changed the direction of the human race on Earth from that point on. They cooked up this fake history which was then set as our backdrop. But some of us are still aware of what happened. We just no longer have the memory of our former civilization to be able to fix the problem. And now we're powerless to defend ourselves from the dreaded Niburu! We're doomed!

Re:Glad it's not us, eh?

[kalirion]

The Martians have a tough choice. Do they reveal their superior technology by blasting the asteroid from the sky, or take one for the team and keep hiding?

I'm guessing

[argStyopa]

That's where Phobos and Deimos came from as well.

Maybe they get a baby brother for Christmas!

Re:Tungusta "disaster"?

[roystgnr]

"Disaster" is a pretty hypy label for an event which led to no known loss of human life or property

When an asteroid travels millions of miles to avoid flattening Moscow by a few thousand, "phenomenon" seems as understated as "disaster" is overstated. How about the "Tunguska Warning Shot"?