LOS ANGELES (AFP) - An asteroid hurtling towards Mars has a one in 75 chance of chance of scoring a direct hit on the red planet next month, NASA experts said in a statement Friday

The US space agency's Near Earth Object Program (NEOP) revealed that the asteroid's exact course was difficult to predict, but said it could slam into Mars on January 30, leaving a crater measuring an estimated 1 kilometer across.

If the asteroid, which has been named 2007 WD5, missed Mars as expected it could return to swing past Earth years or decades later, but there was no indication of a threat to the planet, scientists said.

A collision with Mars would be likely to send an enormous dust cloud into the planet's atmosphere.

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I won't sign a lease after it hits. LOL

You hear about stuff like this and it probably just never really sinks in.

If a large enough rock hit earth... I mean, would we even know it? Or would it all be so fast? It's really kinda scary to think about.

And you guys are freakin me out... asteroids, death rays, LOL...

kanaloa wrote:

You hear about stuff like this and it probably just never really sinks in. If a large enough rock hit earth... I mean, would we even know it? Or would it all be so fast? It's really kinda scary to think about. And you guys are freakin me out... asteroids, death rays, LOL...

Well, not if it landed on your head.LOL I believe the scientists said that the dinosaur extinction took a couple of years since global darkening killed the plants and etc. on down the line of the food chain. Iceland would be the best place to be in that event as they have geothermal energy.

Quote:

geothermal energy

My first response was "What's that?" then I googled it. Wow but that's amazing stuff:

Geothermal Energy

Interesting, eh Graham? I got that from some sci-fi book on a doomsday scenario. It makes complete sense.

Hawaii's starting to use it as well And wind energy. It is really neat stuff.

That makes absolutely perfect sense John, I knew about the geology but didn't know that HI was going that way. Good for them!

Geothermal's one of the only alternative sources without a real negative effect on other parts of the environment. Solar being the other.

Turbines are a huge danger to birds. Nuclear is, well, obvious. Biomas has carbon implications, hydroelectric has dams (again, obvious environmental issues), alternative fuels have byproducts, etc.

The ocean is another fuel source I know some folks are trying to tap into. A lab in Kailua-Kona I believe is also addressing this. So far it looks like an interesting possibility. Lot of energy built up in the ocean.