Not Gonna Happen

During Christmas break it was announced that not only might an asteroid slam into Mars, but it might do so right in front of one of the Mars rovers, giving us all a front row seat. I was excited. So were the kids. So were all the wackos calling up Art Bell that night. The initial odds were set at 1 in 75, but a week or so later they shot up to 1 in 25.

Sadly, they are now setting odds at 1 in 40, and estimate it'll miss by 20,000-ish miles. Bummer.

It reminded me of when this thing slammed into Jupiter back in 94. Now THAT was cool.


It's Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, the "string of pearls" comet, one that got broken up by Jupiter's gravity in 1992, then utterly demolished a couple years later. On national TV, no less.