Asteroid could hit Mars next month

If the asteroid, which has been named 2007 WD5, missed Mars as expected it could return to swing past Earth years or decades later, but there was no indication of a threat to the planet, scientists said on Friday. A collision with Mars would be likely to send an enormous dust cloud into the planet’s atmosphere. The exact path of the asteroid, which was discovered in November, was becoming difficult to observe because it was receding from the Earth, scientists said.