Comet C/2013 A1 and Mars in 2014

Discovery News

A recently discovered comet will make an uncomfortably close planetary flyby next year — but this time it’s not Earth that’s in the crosshairs.

According to preliminary orbital prediction models, comet C/2013 A1 will buzz by Mars on Oct. 19, 2014. The icy interloper is thought to originate from the Oort Cloud — a hypothetical region surrounding the solar system containing countless billions of cometary nuclei that were outcast from the primordial solar system billions of years ago.

We know that comets have hit the planets before (re: the massive Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9that crashed into Jupiter in 1994), Mars in particular. It’s also believed that Earth’s oceans were created by water delivered by comets — cometary impacts are an inevitable part of living in this cosmic ecosystem.

SOURCE: http://news.discovery.com/space/astronomy/could-a-comet-hit-mars-in-2014-130225.htm

Raw Story

Astronomers say that a comet will make an close flyby next year, not of Earth, but of our neighbor planet, Mars. According to a Monday report on Discovery.com, the recently discovered comet, named C/2013 A1 will fly close to Mars on Oct. 19 of 2014.

Comets are balls of ice and debris flung off in the process of forming planets and stars. Comet c/2013 is believed, like many others that pass through our solar system, to have originated in what is known as the Oort Cloud. The Oort Cloud is a massive field of many billions of comets that surrounds our solar system. The cloud was theorized by astronomer Jan Oort in 1950, but it has never been seen and scientists, while mostly accepting that it exists, argue about its size and where the comet nuclei floating in it came from.

SOURCE: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/02/26/comet-could-collide-with-mars-in-2014/

Meteor Strikes 2013-02-15 [ALERT]

source: www.eumetsat.int

In this photo taken with a mobile phone, a meteor contrail is seen in Chelyabinsk region of Russia, Feb. 15, 2013.

/ AP

[CBS News]

A meteor streaked across the sky above Russia's Ural Mountains on Friday morning, causing sharp explosions and injuring more than 500 people, many of them hurt by broken glass.

Fragments of the meteor fell in a thinly populated area of the Chelyabinsk region, the Emergency Ministry said in a statement. About 6,000 square feet of a roof at a zinc factory collapsed, but it was unclear whether that was caused by meteor fragments impacting the building, or by a shock wave from a nearby impact.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57569551/meteorites-slam-into-russia-as-meteor-seen-streaking-through-morning-sky/


[Wikipedia]

The 2013 Russian meteor event occurred on the morning of 15 February 2013 over South Ural, Russia, at approximately 09:15 local time (03:15UTC).^[1][2] At least one object streaked across the early morning sky at a speed of at least 54,000 km/h^[3] and shattered over the city ofChelyabinsk. The main object seems to have hit Lake Chebarkul.^[4] The Russian news agency RIA Novosti said officials detected a mid-air blast at an approximate altitude of approximately 10,000 metres.^[5] The Russian Academy of Sciences estimated that the meteor weighed 10 tons.^[6]

Location of the meteor event

Local residents said they witnessed extremely bright burning objects in the sky of the Chelyabinsk, Sverdlovsk, and Orenburg regions and neighbouring regions in Kazakhstan.^[7][8] Amateur videos showed what appears to be a fireball streaking across the sky and a loud sonic boom^[9]afterward. At times the object was so bright that it cast shadows.^[10][11] At least 20 children were injured when the windows of a school and kindergarden burst at 09:20.^[12] The Associated Press quoted an interior ministry spokesman as saying that approximately 600 m² of a roof at a zincfactory collapsed during the event.^[13]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelyabinsk_Meteor_shower

[2012 DA14]
2012 DA₁₄ is a near-Earth asteroid with an estimated diameter of 50 meters (160 ft) and an estimated mass of 190,000 metric tons.^[4] It was discovered on February 23, 2012, by the Observatorio Astronómico de La Sagra, Granada in Spain (J75)^[1] seven days after passing 0.0174 AU(2,600,000 km; 1,620,000 mi) from Earth.^[3] Calculations show that on February 15, 2013, the distance between the asteroid and the center-point of Earth will be 0.0002276 AU (34,050 km; 21,160 mi).^[3] The asteroid will pass 27,700 km (17,200 mi) from the surface of Earth.^[2] This is a record close approach for a known object of this size.^[2]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_DA14

[the guardian Live Updates]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2013/feb/15/meteorite-explodes-over-russian-urals-live-updates

Giant asteroid will buzz the Earth on February

The massive asteroid weighs approximately 143,000 tons and measures 148 feet long. That means that the asteroid is roughly half the size of a football field. According to scientists Don Yeoman this massive asteroid is similar to the one believed to have leveled hundreds of square miles of Siberian forest back in 1908.

That massive impact is called the “Tunguska Event.” According to NASA, this particular asteroid will pass harmlessly by the Earth. However, on a cosmic scale it is passing quite close to our planet. NASA estimates the asteroid will pass 17,200 miles above the earth.

The asteroid flyby will be close enough that skywatchers with a decent backyard telescope should be able to view the asteroid says NASA. However, the speed of the asteroid will make it hard to track with NASA saying that it will move twice the width of the moon across the sky for every minute that it’s visible.

Source: http://www.slashgear.com/giant-asteroid-will-buzz-the-earth-on-february-15-30267325