Planet Mars to be hit by a comet in 2014

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Tiberius wrote:

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For my claim that we'd be able to see it? None, I'm hypothesizing that if the side where it hits is facing Earth and it is at night, we may see the flash.

As Mars is a superior planet (outside the Earth's orbit), we only ever see its phase as gibbous or full from Earth. I think you'd probably need a telescope to observe anything out of the ordinary unless the nucleus itself were to hit the planet.

[Gaith]

Extrapolating its orbit, they found it will make a very near pass of Mars around Oct. 19, 2014, missing the planet by the nominal distance of about 100,000 kilometers (60,000 miles).

Aaaand, there's astronomy for you: every once in while, it makes a "very near pass" at being interesting.