Newly Discovered Comet May Hit Mars...

March 04, 2013

This year seems to be one for comets. In addition to the two projectiles that will zoom near Earth, a third one has recently been discovered. The newest one, though, won't fly by our planet. Instead, it will pass uncomfortably close to Mars in 2014.
Named C/2013 A1, the comet will fly near the Red Planet on Oct. 19, 2014 according to preliminary orbital prediction models. The icy missile is thought to have first originated from the Oort Cloud, which is a hypothetical region containing billions of cometary nuclei located around our solar system. Comets have struck planets in the past. In fact, it's thought that some of Earth's water was partly created by comets crashing into our planet. Due to the uncertainty in predicting the path of this particular comet, though, NASA scientists are unsure whether the comet will sail harmlessly past the Red Planet or will slam into it. Continue reading via Science World Report...