Showing posts with label Meteor Crater. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Meteor Crater. Show all posts

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Hey, Mars! Duck!

The Super Bowl won't be the only thing worth watching about a month from now.

There's a chance that Mars, our neighbor to the, uh, er, out that way, may get clobbered with a giant asteroid on January 30, NASA announced recently.

Asteroid 2007 WD5, discovered last month between Earth and Mars, has a 1 in 75 (and fall-ing) chance of stirring up quite a bit of Red Dust. If it does make impact, it will probably leave a crater similar in size to Meteor Crater in Arizona. That's big. Really big. How big? According to the Wik, Meteor Crater "is about 1,200 m (4,000 ft) in diameter, some 170 m deep (570 ft), and is surrounded by a rim that rises 45 m (150 ft) above the surrounding plains. The center of the crater is filled with 210-240 m (700-800 ft) of rubble lying above crater bedrock." That's how big.

And, please... don't emigrate to the Red Planet to start a new lodge and then have your sons become Martian Masons, because, as you know, Mars ain't the kind of place to raise your kids.

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