I'll believe it when it happens..

[StuW]

A recently discovered comet will make an uncomfortably-close planetary flyby next year — but this time it’s not Earth that’s in the cosmic crosshairs.

http://news.discovery.com/space/astronomy/could-a-comet-hit-mars-in-2014-130225.htm

[Treeden]

Certainly one to keep an eye on!

We will need more observations to pin it down accurately, but it sounds like there is a chance of a close pass, and at 35 miles per second the next obvious question is "how big is it?"

[Pig]

Very imteresting Stu

[twotter]

....and will Bruce Willis and Ben Afleck do a film about it???

[JamesF]

Definitely one to keep tabs on. I wonder what it might look like from Earth even if it does miss Mars?

James

[steveb1977]

Unfortunatly doesn't look like Mars will be well placed at that time. Booo

[StuW]

I think it's just another case of scaremongering...

[Naemeth]

If it hits, then lets hope it doesn't hit any of the current rovers there. I'd love to see it hit Mars, it's a fairly rare event, and who knows, it may add some water to Mars' atmosphere for a short time?

It probably won't hit though, there is a much bigger window for it to miss than hit.

[crashtestdummy]

Sure it would be cloudy here anyway even if mars was in the right place

[DeepThought]

Betteridge's law:

If the headline is a question, the answer is 'no'.

I'm such a cynic.

[JamesF]

Betteridge's law:

Fidell's Corollary: "Any headline of the form 'X may Y' should be re-written as 'Will X Y?'. Betteridge's Law then applies."

James

[Cath]

If it hits, then lets hope it doesn't hit any of the current rovers there.

If it's a biggy I don't think it'll matter where it hits, the rovers would most likely be doomed.

It probably won't hit though, there is a much bigger window for it to miss than hit.

It would be really cool to see a biggy hit say the Moon or Mars. But the chances of a Mars hit doesn't look good at all - shame.

Though NASA will be pleased if it doesn't hit.

[Paul M]

"I'll believe it when it happens"

That's what the dinosaurs said.....

[Naemeth]

If it's a biggy I don't think it'll matter where it hits, the rovers would most likely be doomed.

It would be really cool to see a biggy hit say the Moon or Mars. But the chances of a Mars hit doesn't look good at all - shame.

Though NASA will be pleased if it doesn't hit.

Depends on how big it is surely? If it's on the otherside of the planet, and it's the right size surely it wouldn't affect the rovers?

[JamesF]

Depends on how big it is surely? If it's on the otherside of the planet, and it's the right size surely it wouldn't affect the rovers?

Could be hard to say. Given the lower gravity the dust and bits of squished Martian thrown into the atmosphere by the impact won't fall back so fast, but the atmosphere is so much thinner than ours that perhaps it wouldn't get carried so far as it might here.

James

[DeepThought]

Could be hard to say. Given the lower gravity the dust and bits of squished Martian thrown into the atmosphere by the impact won't fall back so fast, but the atmosphere is so much thinner than ours that perhaps it wouldn't get carried so far as it might here.

James

Curiosity might be OK because it's nuclear powered but I believe Opportunity is solar powered so a sudden kick up of dust into the atmosphere wouldn't do it any favours.

To be honest, rovers can be rebuilt and resent in a few years, but a big hit on a small planet would be a once in a lifetime opportunity to witness.. in fact once in several lifetimes.

[Treeden]

Depends on how big it is surely? If it's on the otherside of the planet, and it's the right size surely it wouldn't affect the rovers?

Again it depends on the size, but even an impact on the far side from Curiosity might lead to huge amounts of dust being thrown up into the Martian atmosphere. This could cause problems for the rover because it may end up buried under a thick layer of dust.

Or, if you prefer a more positive spin.... a direct impact on the surface would leave a sizable crater that would save the rover a lot of digging! It could provide all sorts of samples and data that would be really useful to the scientists.

[Naemeth]

If it was big enough, and assuming Mars managed to capture much of it's volatiles, would it thicken up the Martian atmosphere, as I understand water cannot flow on the Martian surface because of the low pressure.

[Kropster]

Don't sweat the Mars Comet. Before it happens, we may get another meteorite like the Russian one..... out of the blue, nobody sees it coming, 10,000 tons at 40,000 mph, 500kTons TNT equivalent.

If it came in at a steeper angle over the UK, we would definitely not be worrying about being able to observe a Mars impact!

[DeepThought]

Don't sweat the Mars Comet. Before it happens, we may get another meteorite like the Russian one..... out of the blue, nobody sees it coming, 10,000 tons at 40,000 mph, 500kTons TNT equivalent.

If it came in at a steeper angle over the UK, we would definitely not be worrying about being able to observe a Mars impact!

Well that's cheered me up.

[LukeSkywatcher]

Don't sweat the Mars Comet. Before it happens, we may get another meteorite like the Russian one..... out of the blue, nobody sees it coming, 10,000 tons at 40,000 mph, 500kTons TNT equivalent.

If it came in at a steeper angle over the UK, we would definitely not be worrying about being able to observe a Mars impact!

Think i may need to buy a wider lens for my camera to fit it all in the frame.

[Kropster]

Well... it had been a miserable, overcast day!