The end may be near...

...for the planet Mars.

Comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring may hit Mars in October of 2014.

Key quote:

Discovered on January 3, C/2013 A1 Siding Spring was typical of comet finds: a dim moving speck on a photograph. However, recent observations suggest that Comet Siding Spring could be extremely interesting indeed – its current orbit brings it only 37,000 km from Mars.

The discovery conditions of C/2013 A1 indicated that the comet was an intrinsically bright object on a retrograde orbit through the inner Solar System. Translated: a large object moving at very high speeds relative to the planets. The brightness of the comet suggests an object between 10-50 km in diameter, similar to that of Comet Hale-Bopp, which dazzled the Northern Hemisphere for 18 months in 1996-1997. If we were to apply the Torino Impact Scale to Mars, C/2013 A1 would be rated a 7.

Should the C/2013 A1 impact Mars next October, scientists will have a front row seat for one of the rarest of all geological events – an impact capable of causing a mass extinction had it been aimed at Earth instead. As the comet makes its closest approach to Mars, it will be racing outward from the sun at approximately 56 km/s relative to Mars. If the comet were to impact Mars, the energy released would be on the order of trillions of megatons, while the resulting crater could be up to 500km across and 2.5km deep depending on the exact size of the comet.

I blame global warming for this possible disaster. Or maybe the budget crisis in Washington. Whatever.