News Flash ... Martian Attack

Disclaimer 1: The cartoon has nothing to do with today's web entry. I just thought it was funny.

Disclaimer 2: When I'm on vacation I seldom if ever watch the news or read newspapers, including Yahoo Headlines, so I missed this one until now.

Anywho, on with the story … There was one headline I found today that has been circulating for a couple of weeks concerning an asteroid possibly impacting Mars.

The asteroid, 2007 WD5 is classified as a Near Earth Object (NEO).

It passed within 5 million miles of Earth on November 1st, 2007 and is half-way to Mars.

Asteroid 2007 WD5 is expected to pass within 15,500 miles of Mars on January 30th at 11:56 PM, give or take a few minutes.

The asteroid is not expected to impact the Earth, but it could be interesting to see what happens if this NEO impacts Mars.Asteroid 2007 WD5 was discovered on November 8th, 2007.

It is 160 feet in diameter and is traveling at a speed of 27,900 Mph.If the asteroid hits Mars it could cause a crater 1/2 mile wide and hit with the force of a 3- Megaton atom bomb.

The asteroid is too small to see except with Earth's largest telescopes.

Weather permitting, I'll have my telescope and camera ready in the event the asteroid hits the Red Planet, because I imagine it would cause some sort of explosive flash in Mars atmosphere.

Stay tuned for further updates.

You can read information about Asteroid 2007 WD5 using the following links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_WD5

http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news153.html

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2007/12/asteroid-impact.html#more

Happy New Year!

StarPilot