(AP) Scientists tracking an asteroid approaching Mars say that an impact with the Red Planet has become less likely.

Refined estimates of the asteroid’s orbit were made using new observations from a telescope at the Calar Alto Observatory in Spain, according to the Near-Earth Object Program at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The impact probability fell to 2.5 percent, the NEO office said in Jan. 8 update posted on the NEO Web site. The miss distance was holding steady at about 30,000 kilometers, or 18,600 miles.

The asteroid, dubbed 2007 WD5, was discovered in late November by the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona.

Odds of an impact had risen to about 4 percent by late December and scientists were excited about the possibility of observing a cosmic collision on Jan. 30.

The size of a football field, the asteroid could blast a half-mile-wide crater into the Martian surface.

and is there going to be any way to avoid an aseroid if it chose to head for your own country? would NASA be able to tell exactly where it would hit and then be able to tell its citizens to flee? oh just another worry for me to add to my life long list (which may be shorter than i had hoped). And i was SO looking forward to a good nite’s sleep!

LOS ANGELES (AP) – The chance of a football field-sized asteroid plowing into Mars next month has been increased to 4 percent, scientists said Friday after analyzing archival data.

The odds were increased to 1-in-25 this week after a Ph.D. student pored through the archives and plotted the asteroid’s motions before its official discovery. The new information allowed scientists to improve their calculations of the asteroid’s orbit and flight path.

Scientists will continue to monitor the asteroid to better predict the possibility of a Martian impact. Yeomans said he expects the odds to decrease with new observations gathered early next year.

The likelihood of an asteroid hit usually “peaks before plummeting to zero with additional data,” he said.

The asteroid poses no threat to Earth and is closing in on the Red Planet at 27,900 mph.

Should a collision occur, it would likely blast a half-mile-wide crater north of where the rover Opportunity has been exploring since 2004.

Good you are thinking about these things. Check out the B612 organization!

Here is a report to show you what NASA reported in 2006…

http://www.b612foundation.org/papers/NASA-finalrpt.pdf

Cheers!
Jim

If Ice: a series of solar/chemical (specifically attacking H20 crystallized bonds) panels could be sent on their way and then deployed on its surface – or nearby – way before these ever even come close enough to Earth to even cause alarm?

If minerals: Which minerals? What kind of chemical bonds hold these together? Attack these weaknesses. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, right?

If Salts: What crystalization form? What chemical bonds? As above.

If Metals: What kind of chemical bonds hold these together? What kind of electromagnetic forces could influence/sway their orbit?

Not pretending to know anything about anything… Just trying to think creatively here, without panic as an agent.

We’re a pretty smart species. We should come up with something to prevent this from happening (again!)

Instead of thinking about blowing these things to bits (bits that will, no doubt, spell catastrophes – tsunamis, et al – when they will fall on Earth) maybe those “in the know” could concentrate their efforts in finding a way to track these things via some kind of gravitational beam in order to slightly alter their orbit.

Maybe Specialists in Magnetism of non-magnetic materials could be called upon to be of most help in determining the kind of electromagnetic forces that should be used in such cases, in order to PULL these things out of their current line of impact?

Hmmm… Something to think about?

However, perhaps like every generation before us, we think ours will be the last… Hopefully, just like preceding generations, we will be proven wrong.

Least, from my lips to God’s Ears!

Happy, SAFE and FEARLESS New Year to All