Doomsday comet may hit Mars

[Betonov]

Originally Posted by Oberon

Unless you're on Mars or have a pretty powerful telescope my money is on no.

NASA has, I hope they catch it

[TLAM Strike]

Originally Posted by Oberon

Unless you're on Mars or have a pretty powerful telescope my money is on no.

Well this Comet maybe 10 times bigger than Shoemaker-Levy 9, and a little bit smaller than Hale-Bopp. If we are just talking about just the out gassing it should be visible; if not by the naked eye then by a simple telescope or binocs.

If it hits Mars that blast would on the order of 20 Petatonnes. I'm going to guess and say you will see Mars visibly brighten with just the naked eye. If you got a cheap telescope like I do you are going to see some serious rearrangement of the planet.

[Wolferz]

Ack Ack Ack Ack Ack.

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by TLAM Strike

If it hits Mars that blast would on the order of 20 Petatonnes.

That kind of blast energy....I can't even comprehend it.

[Dowly]

If it hits, I'm curious to see what kind of images Curiousity sends back.

Might be valuable info for understanding what kind of damage we are talking about
if one of those things would hit the Earth.

[GT182]

With the current estimate of the absolute magnitude of the nucleus M2 = 10.3, which might indicate the diameter up to 50 km, the energy of impact might reach the equivalent of staggering 2×10¹º megatonnes! This kind of event can leave a crater 500 km across and 2 km deep.

One that size could possible destroy Mars and we'd be in a world of poop. Just imagine the pieces of Mars heading our way. Not a good thought. Tho extinction for us does come to mind.

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by GT182

One that size could possible destroy Mars and we'd be in a world of poop. Just imagine the pieces of Mars heading our way. Not a good thought. Tho extinction for us does come to mind.

Naaah, it'd need to be something like a thousand times bigger to destroy Mars. Something like the size of Venus or Mercury might do it, or it would at the very least create enough debris to dramatically increase the possibility of an impact event on Earth. Planets are very difficult to kill. Very difficult...unless you have a Death Star, or access to a Black Hole.

This makes for good reading:
http://qntm.org/destroy

Plenty of things can destroy life, or forms of life on a planet, or radically change the ecosystem, but those events are contained to the planet it occurs on unless it's some sort of space ship, or a pulsar.

What this will likely do is radically change the climate patterns of Mars, certainly it will be difficult to see the surface of Mars for a while after impact, it will also generate a rather large hole and strip the surface clean for a very large distance surrounding the impact point. It will also make Michael Bay feel very very very small and impotent. Likewise Roland Emmerich.

However, the most likely outcome is that it will make a very pretty passing light show for the Curiosity rover and sail right past Mars and back out into space.

[Dowly]

I'll just leave this here (thanks to HunterICX who linked me this ages ago):

Originally Posted by Dowly

if one of those things would hit the Earth.

Oh GREAT! Give Bubblehead something else to start a wackadoodle thread about!

[eddie]

I hope they trun Hubble towards Mars at that time, think of the pics it could get!

[Mork_417]

Not sure if i will be able to see anything or not, but I'm going to try. Got a twelve inch scope, just hope Mars will be visible to me that day.

[Synthfg]

Originally Posted by eddie

I hope they trun Hubble towards Mars at that time, think of the pics it could get!

I think half the telescopes in the solar system will be pointing at mars on that day if there is better than a 1/10 chance of an impact

Assuming they are not directly in the firing line MRO, Express, Oddysy, Curiosity and Opportunity should have some epic views of the blast and after effects

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Synthfg

I think half the telescopes in the solar system will be pointing at mars on that day if there is better than a 1/10 chance of an impact

Assuming they are not directly in the firing line MRO, Express, Oddysy, Curiosity and Opportunity should have some epic views of the blast and after effects

No doubt about that

[clive bradbury]

If an object of similar size ever hits earth, it won't do too much damage. After all, most intelligent life here has already been and gone...

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by clive bradbury

If an object of similar size ever hits earth, it won't do too much damage. After all, most intelligent life here has already been and gone...

Well, to be fair, has it ever existed in Stoke?