Asteroid 2007 WD5 targets Mars for 2008 impact!

Planet Mars may be the target of impact for newly discovered asteroid (2007 WD5) on January 30, 2008.
It is fast approaching Mars at 27,900 mph and is the size of a football field. The asteroid poses no threat to Earth; as it already passed us by in November 2007 when it was first discovered.
Mars currently has 3 functional man-made observational 'eyes' on it. Two of them are Mars Exploration Rovers (Spirit & Opportunity), and one satellite orbiting the planet which can transmit to us spectacular views of this event!
(more info in video)

Did you know?
New asteroids are discovered every month that pass near Earth, called Near-Earth Objects (NEOs). Comets passing close to Earth are also included.

The following is from JPL Podcast (NASA):

Chesley: Impacts are a recurring phenomenon in the solar system, and that's of course more of a concern for Earthlings. That's how we found this, by searching for Earth-threatening asteroids. This one, of course, has been checked for Earth hazard, and we don't see anything in the future for Earth.

Narrator: OK, that was my next question that you anticipated, so we don't need to worry about this one?

Chesley: 2007 WD5 is an Earth-crossing asteroid, it's a near-Earth asteroid, but we have checked and we find no possibility of Earth impact in the future. (end)

The scientific interest in comets and asteroids is due largely to their status as the relatively unchanged remnant debris from the solar system formation process some 4.6 billion years ago.
As the primitive, leftover building blocks of the solar system formation process, comets and asteroids offer clues to the chemical mixture from which the planets formed some 4.6 billion years ago. If we wish to know the composition of the primordial mixture from which the planets formed, then we must determine the chemical constituents of the leftover debris from this formation process - the comets and asteroids.

UPCOMING CLOSE APPROACHES TO EARTH:
name- 2007 TU24
date- 2008-Jan-29
size: 250m - 550m
velocity: 9.25 km/s

Courtesy: NASA

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[MariaGarcia281]

My newest upload:

Meteors Target Earth

-Our moon and Earth get struck by space objects at approximately the same rate - then why is it that our surface doesn't appear with craters as prominently as the moon?

See video

[migo53333]

Maria, can you explain to me why we spend billions on these programs and then they tell us we dont have the funds to fix our infrastructure.......what a scam...

[MariaGarcia281]

While we don't live in a perfect world, there are so many things happening 'outside' our planet that affect us

[MariaGarcia281]

NASA NEWS RELEASE

Two of the Milky Way's Spiral Arms Go Missing

"...new images from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope are shedding light on the true structure of the Milky Way, revealing that it has just two major arms of stars instead of the four it was previously thought to possess."

"Our own sun might have once resided in a different arm. Since it was formed more than 4 billion years ago, it has traveled around the galaxy 16 times."

Find out more at NASA website

[MariaGarcia281]

Latest NEO news from NASA:

NASA Statement on Student Asteroid Calculations‏

The Near-Earth Object Program Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., has not changed its current estimates for the very low probability (1 in 45,000) of an Earth impact by the asteroid Apophis in 2036.

"...a young German student, who claims the Apophis impact probability is far higher than the current estimate."

NASA said student's scenario does not affect the current impact probability

[tpmaster21]

so did it already hit + sometime in 2032 ( if the earth last that long) some metor is just going to miss us: I DON'T WANT TO DIE :(

[MariaGarcia281]

Asteroids, comets, and meteors all change trajectories somewhat with time.

They can speed up or slow down when passing near a planet's gravitational pull; may also begin to lose mass as a result of smaller space object encounters & close approaches to sun esp. comets that start to vaporize.

Astronomers are always busy recalculating (adjusting) these factors to 'space rocks' orbits.  I can only imagine that it must be quite a challenge! ..Oh, you are more likely to die in a car accident

[yakomuto]

As expected, scientists at JPL's Near-Earth Object Office have further refined the trajectory estimate for asteroid 2007 WD5 and ruled out any possibility of a Mars impact on Jan. 30. The latest trajectory plot of the asteroid was made possible by adding to previously obtained data some new data from a round of observations acquired by three observatories on the evenings of Jan. 5 through 8. Based on this latest analysis, the odds for the asteroid impacting Mars on Jan. 30 are 0.0 percent.

[gadionson1]

awesome ... terrific ..

weee .. smart girl :)

[2YayMe4]

wOoOw!.

[megatron2000z]

What does wps mean?

[john8teeen]

Hooly crap MOMmmmmm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!