Asteroid could hit Mars next month

An asteroid hurtling towards Mars has a one in 75 chance of chance of scoring a direct hit on the red planet next month, NASA experts have said. The US space agency8217;s Near Earth Object Programme NEOP revealed that the asteroid8217;s exact course was difficult to predict, but said it could slam into Mars on January 30, leaving a crater measuring an estimated one km across.

If the asteroid, which has been named 2007 WD5, missed Mars as expected it could return to swing past Earth years or decades later, but there was no indication of a threat to the planet, scientists said on Friday. A collision with Mars would be likely to send an enormous dust cloud into the planet8217;s atmosphere. The exact path of the asteroid, which was discovered in November, was becoming difficult to observe because it was receding from the Earth, scientists said.