Safriz
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Rush to Mars: Comet impact could make Red Planet inhabitable
A comet near Mars may strike it in a powerful impact, potentially making the planet much warmer. The Red Planet is luring many entrepreneurs, including billionaire Dennis Tito, who aims to beat other nations by sending a man and a woman to Mars.
The make-or-break window for this possible game-changer is October 2014. At that time, an Oort cloud comet called C/2013 A1, first discovered last month, will approach Mars, missing it by about 35,000 km, which is quite close.
However the comets trajectory is still uncertain, which leaves a small chance it could impact the planet, said Russian astronomer Leonid Elenin, who worked on calculating the course of the celestial body. The comet will be travelling at a speed of 56 kilometers per second relative to Mars when it passes; if they do collide, the resulting explosion would be equal to a 20,000-gigaton bomb blast powerful enough to leave a 50-kilometer crater on the planetary surface
The event would trigger a major change of the Martian climate, Australian space scientist Robert Matson explained. The impact would evaporate large amounts of water and carbon dioxide ice from the comet, spread across a planetary scale, making the climate on Mars much warmer due to the greenhouse effect.
On the other hand, the blast would also raise huge clouds of dust and could trigger volcanic activity in the mostly-inert planet. Both would make more sunlight bounce off the Martian atmosphere, which would make the planet colder. A heating effect is likely to prevail, however.
But such dramatic change is far from certain, with more observation needed to narrow down the comets trajectory. Even if it is a simple close flyby, it will still be a rare chance to take high-resolution pictures of the object with the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission.
Rush to Mars: Comet impact could make Red Planet inhabitable ? RT News
A comet near Mars may strike it in a powerful impact, potentially making the planet much warmer. The Red Planet is luring many entrepreneurs, including billionaire Dennis Tito, who aims to beat other nations by sending a man and a woman to Mars.
The make-or-break window for this possible game-changer is October 2014. At that time, an Oort cloud comet called C/2013 A1, first discovered last month, will approach Mars, missing it by about 35,000 km, which is quite close.
However the comets trajectory is still uncertain, which leaves a small chance it could impact the planet, said Russian astronomer Leonid Elenin, who worked on calculating the course of the celestial body. The comet will be travelling at a speed of 56 kilometers per second relative to Mars when it passes; if they do collide, the resulting explosion would be equal to a 20,000-gigaton bomb blast powerful enough to leave a 50-kilometer crater on the planetary surface
The event would trigger a major change of the Martian climate, Australian space scientist Robert Matson explained. The impact would evaporate large amounts of water and carbon dioxide ice from the comet, spread across a planetary scale, making the climate on Mars much warmer due to the greenhouse effect.
On the other hand, the blast would also raise huge clouds of dust and could trigger volcanic activity in the mostly-inert planet. Both would make more sunlight bounce off the Martian atmosphere, which would make the planet colder. A heating effect is likely to prevail, however.
But such dramatic change is far from certain, with more observation needed to narrow down the comets trajectory. Even if it is a simple close flyby, it will still be a rare chance to take high-resolution pictures of the object with the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission.
Rush to Mars: Comet impact could make Red Planet inhabitable ? RT News
You should all consider moving there.
