MARS 30 January 2008 Asteroid could crash into Mars. Odds shortening

A football-field sized asteroid known as 2007 WD5 has a 1 in 25 chance of hitting the Red Planet on Jan 30, according to scientists from the Near Earth Object Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. They expect the odds to shorten as the date gets closer. When the space rock was discovered in late November, they judged the odds to be about 350 to one.

If it hits, the impact would gouge a hole the size of the famed Meteor Crater in Arizona and raise an enormous cloud of dust.

If the asteroid misses Mars, it could return to swing past Earth years or decades later, but there was no indication of a threat to the planet, scientists said.

The Mars robot Opportunity is thought to be outside the potential impact zone. UPDATED Jan/08