Space & Astronomy

Doomsday comet could hit Mars in 2014

By T.K. Randall
March 11, 2013 ·  48 comments

Image Credit: NASA/JPL In the wake of the recent Russian meteor more people than ever are now aware that death from above can and does happen. In a further demonstration of how deadly objects from space can be, a massive comet is heading towards Mars with a small chance of hitting it in 2014. The comet is believed to be anywhere between 9 and 30 miles across, an absolute civilization killer if such an object were to ever hit the Earth - by comparison the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs was only 6 miles wide.

Recent events have sparked a heightened interest in developing methods to deflect potential threats from space, this week Iowa State University's Asteroid Deflection Research Center proposed a $500 million mission to use nuclear weapons to protect the Earth from a large impact. Other suggested methods include the use of solar sails, gravity tractors and lasers to try and nudge an approaching asteroid out of the way.[!gad]In the wake of the recent Russian meteor more people than ever are now aware that death from above can and does happen. In a further demonstration of how deadly objects from space can be, a massive comet is heading towards Mars with a small chance of hitting it in 2014. The comet is believed to be anywhere between 9 and 30 miles across, an absolute civilization killer if such an object were to ever hit the Earth - by comparison the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs was only 6 miles wide.

Recent events have sparked a heightened interest in developing methods to deflect potential threats from space, this week Iowa State University's Asteroid Deflection Research Center proposed a $500 million mission to use nuclear weapons to protect the Earth from a large impact. Other suggested methods include the use of solar sails, gravity tractors and lasers to try and nudge an approaching asteroid out of the way.

Source: MSN.com | Comments (48)

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