Forget it abt colliding with mars, its not interested in mars anymore coz its heading straight for us! Well if it is gonna hit and missed mars at Jan 30 , can anyone tell me the approximate days left for it to collide here .. coz if its less and hittin my area.. time to party!

1 in 40 to 1 in 10,000 in one day?

I think I’ll activate the Bad Astrology Credo here and state with all certainty that 2007 WD5 will track the bottom of Valles Marineris like a ball bearing up a pinball chute.

Of course, that’s just me, but then again, Andy Puckett, the asteroid’s pre-discovery imager, sure did move from Chicago to Anchorage awfully fast…

So in inanswer (ithink) toTom’s question :

# Tom on 04 Jan 2008 at 8:05 am :
“I would be curious to know where MO went after its flyby…?”

Bits of it went here …

…. and here

… and there

…. and wa-aay over there!

I liked the idea someone mentioned here of seeing if the probes already orbiting Mars (Mars Odyssey, Mars Reconnisance Orbiter, Mars Express, etc ..) can get a good look at it whether hitting or missing. Great thinking.

I very much doubt its the Mars Observer’s remains … or Ameilia Airhart’s (spelling?) … but Hoffa’s body? Hmmn … maybe!

[[BArton, that should be clockwise, because the planet has a Velocity of say, 18 miles/sec, while the inner debris has a velocity of 18+ miles/sec. As the inner debris impacts the proto planet, it should spin the planet in the clockwise direction.]]

I think you might have that wrong. From the frame of reference of the planet, it isn’t moving at all. Counterclockwise around the sun is “forward.” Debris hitting on the “left” — closer to the sun — hits harder, debris hitting on the “right” hits less hard. Consequently the net torque should be counterclockwise as seen from the north pole. I wish I could do diagrams on this thing…

As a couple dozen dirty-minded Renaissance artists showed us, Mars needs women.