Sunny or clear, it’s tough to track an asteroid to Mars
Clay is off this week. Here’s a column first published Dec. 26, 2007:
Did you have a nice Christmas? I hope so.
Do you know what Santa brought me? Neither do I, because I am writing this a few days ahead of time. Whatever it is, I’m sure it is very nice.
Do you remember a question last week about why most pigs have curly tails? I never did come up with an answer other than “just because.”
Now, some of you people are wondering if pigs’ tails curl one way in the Northern Hemisphere and the opposite way in the Southern Hemisphere because of the Coriolis effect. That’s just silly.
Let’s talk about something else.
Among the information listed on the weather page are the weather conditions for various cities. There is “c” for clear and “s” for sunny. What’s the difference?
According to the National Weather Service, sunny and clear are the same thing. Why we need both of them, I don’t know. But there you have it.
Astronomers are predicting a 1-in-75 chance that an asteroid will collide with Mars on Jan. 30. In 1993, astronomers Eugene and Carolyn Shoemaker and David Levy predicted with accuracy the exact time and date that the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet would hit Jupiter. How is it that they could predict that collision with accuracy, but these astronomers can only predict 1-in-75 chance? I think it’s because this asteroid, named 2007 WD5, wasn’t even discovered until November, and they still don’t know enough about its orbit to say for sure if there is going to be a hit or a miss.
Actually, as these things go, 1-in-75 isn’t a bad bet. Originally, the odds were 1-in-350.
This space rock has a diameter of about 120 feet. It’s being compared to an asteroid that exploded over Siberia in 1908. That explosion leveled millions of trees over 830 square miles.