First Astronomical Disappointment of the Year - Mars Asteroid will Miss

Talk about anti-climax, this just in:

No Big Bang: Asteroid Will Miss Mars

Tracking measurements of asteroid 2007 WD5 taken from four observatories have greatly reduced uncertainties about its Jan. 30 close approach to Mars so that the odds of impact have dropped to 1 in 10,000, the Near-Earth Object Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in a posting on its Web site Thursday.

:bnghd:

Major bummer!! I had the telescope ready and trained on The Red Planet already...

[edit on 11-1-2008 by Beachcoma]

I'm going to watch anyway, just in case. 1 in 10,000 is still better than the lottery. If it were earth in the crosshairs with such a short warning I bet we'd still be trying to deflect it just in case because the stakes are so high, particularly if the possible-but-unlikely impact zone was populated. The way I look at it is that if it does miraculously hit mars I'll be one of a very few watching at the time, and if I'm very lucky, a nice a bright flash might just appear for a split second, not to mention the inevitable dust plume. Highly unlikely, but how cool would it be to be one of a very few to actually witness it?

Thank God!

All the aliens living there must be quite relieved. Now they can get back to work constructing faces, etc..

2PacSade-

Aw nuts!

I was really pulling for WD5 to do the deed. One less rock to hit us.