Sol Two Hundred and Seventy-Three, Long-Distance Interstellar Strike Weapon

On the second night that Tomcat observed Comet Tomcat-Tang-Mai I again, the point of light had brightened again. The comet's speed was extremely fast—it was probably the fastest moving celestial body in the Solar System. It could fly more than 70 km/s while ordinary planetoids only moved at 20 km/s.

In terms of mass, the energy brought by the comet was thirteen times that of the asteroid that blasted the dinosaurs into extinction at the end of the Cretaceous Period. If Comet Tomcat-Tang-Mai I were to hit Mars, the catastrophe it created would be more spectacular than the fifth major extinction event.

Mars's volume density was much smaller than Earth's, and the comet had enough energy to throw large quantities of matter into orbit. This would leave a huge impact crater on Mars's surface while also forming a belt of particles around it, giving it its own ring.