the power of Tunguska is expected to occur once every few hundred years. Since Mars has only 1/10 the mass to attract objects, these types of impacts occur roughly every one thousand years on Mars. Future encounters In July 2003, the asteroid passed within 0.012 AU of Mars. The exact fate of following the January 2008 Mars encounter is unknown although it likely passed Mars at a distance of 6.5 Mars radii. Mars, unlike Jupiter, is not big enough to eject the asteroid from the Solar System; however, the gravitation effect from the encounter on the asteroid's trajectory is uncertain and the asteroid is currently considered 'lost'. Assuming passed Mars safely, its low inclination to the ecliptic of only 2.3 degrees and high eccentricity of 0.6 could cause it to swing close to Mars or Earth for years or decades into the future. See also C/2013 A1 - Comet that passed extremely close to Mars on 19 October 2014 Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 - Jupiter impact 1994 Impact events on Mars References External links CNEOS – Center for Near Earth Object Studies, JPL–NASA A Meteoroid Hits the Moon (25 cm wide) on 2 May 2006 Gravity Simulator Diagram of Mars Passage (based on 23 December orbital elements) Computing Crater Size from Projectile Diameter (H. Jay Melosh and Ross A. Beyer) Solar System Collisions (Send an asteroid or comet hurtling toward your favorite planet!) Science Friday Podcast with Don Yeomans (2007-12-28) Possible Asteroid Strike on Mars: Scientific Paydirt (2008-01-03) Minor planet object articles (unnumbered) Discoveries by Andrea Boattini Mars impact events Lost minor planets 20071120