Update

Asteroid's Chances of Smacking Mars Dip

The chances of an asteroid smacking into Mars this month are slipping away as astronomers continue to refine its course toward the red planet.

The space rock, an asteroid called 2007 WD5, is now expected to miss Mars by about 18,641 miles (30,000 km), according a Tuesday report by NASA's Near Earth-Object (NEO) program office.

Scientists now estimate the space rock's odds of walloping Mars on Jan. 30 at 2.5 percent, about a 1-in-40 chance, after a series of observations taken by astronomers using Spain's 11.5-foot (3.5-meter) Calar Alto Observatory. The new analysis lowered the asteroid's odds of a martian impact from a 3.6 percent chance released last week.

http://www.space.com/scienceastronom...id-update.html