NASA confirms the risk of a comet impact on Mars

March 6, 2013  |   Filed under: Science and Technology  |   Posted by:

March 6, 2013
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NASA confirmed that, “the comet 2013 A1, also known as Siding Spring, will make a very close approach to Mars in October 2014.

The last comet’s trajectory generated by the Bureau of Near Earth Objects at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, states that: “the comet will pass within a margin of 300,000 kilometers of Mars, and there is a strong possibility it could pass a lot closer. “

Thus, the current estimate of the agency, based on observations on March 1, indicates that it can pass only 50,000 kilometers from the planet’s surface.
Scientists generated the trajectory of Comet Siding Spring based on data obtained by observations from October 2012.

Pending more refined results, today, Mars is within the range of possible paths for the comet and the possibility of an impact cannot be excluded. However, since the probability of impact is currently less than one in 600, future observations will allow completely rule out an impact with Mars.

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