(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-12-22 11:40

LOS ANGELES -- The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) said on Friday that an asteroid may be on a collision course with Mars.

This European Space Agency handout shows a view of planet Mars. JPL experts said on Friday that an asteroid may be on a collision course with Mars. [Agencies]

There is a 1-in-75 chance that the asteroid -- designated 2007 WD5 -- will smash into the Red Planet on January 30, possibly blasting out a crater more than a half-mile wide, said JPL, headquartered in Passadena, Los Angeles.

"We estimate such impacts occur on Mars every thousand years or so," said Steve Chesley, a scientist at JPL.

Measuring about 164 feet wide, the asteroid currently is about half way between Earth and Mars, traveling at about 27,900 mph, said Don Yeomans, manager of the Near Earth Object Office at JPL.

"Over the next five weeks, we hope to gather more information from observatories so we can further refine the asteroid's trajectory," Yeomans said.

The Catalina Sky Survey, funded by the National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA), first discovered 2007 WD5 on November 20. The object was added to a "watch list" because its orbit passes near this planet, but scientists say it poses no danger to Earth.

If the asteroid does smash into Mars, it could release 3 megatons of energy -- roughly the magnitude generated by a similar encounter in Siberia in 1908. That blast is believed to have leveled 80 million trees spread across 830 miles (1,328 kilometers) .

That space rock broke apart in the air, but an asteroid going through Mars' thinner atmosphere could hit the surface more or less intact.

If such a collision does occur, astronomers will have a front- row seat, thanks to the JPL-managed Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter currently mapping the Red Planet and two JPL-built rovers, which could take photographs from the Martian surface.