Slashdot is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Science

Asteroid Impact Simulator Available 224

Posted by CmdrTaco from the simulate-bruce-willis dept.
crem_d_genes writes "Scientists at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory have developed an online program that calculates the effects of an asteroid impact that can be customized for several parameters. Results and the frequency of the type of event you have selected are displayed with an explanation of what they mean. A news briefing of the full story is available."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Asteroid Impact Simulator Available More

Asteroid Impact Simulator Available

Comments Filter:

  • Cool (Score:4, Funny)

    by Zoshnell ( 573838 ) <zoshnell@hoPARIStmail.com minus city> on Thursday April 08, 2004 @01:06PM (#8805087) Journal
    Then I can see at which point Bruce Willis and his crew will have to detonate the nuke warhead to save us all. Hollywood here I come!

    Oh wait... f1r5t p05t

    • Re:Cool (Score:3, Funny)

      by Jason Straight ( 58248 )
      Perhaps the software can be modeled to simulate the dropping of a turd in the toilet, so I can see what the minimum safe distance to keep my toothbrush from the toilet will be.
      • How far above the toilet are you sitting?!? That's a lot of splash! Consider a change of diet, or stop standing on the seat when you use it.

        Actually, it's the FLUSH that disperses the fine mist of coliform bacteria...

      • just how do you drop said turd? im usually covering the top with my arse at the time, thus preventing splashing on my toothbrush.
      • To me, at least, that simulator wouldn't matter. You're discussing the expelling of toliet water. You can either consider it relatively clean or not. If you consider it not, you have to account for the very fine mist that probably covers most of your bathroom whenever you flush that toliet - you need a cabinet to keep your toothbrush in if that freaks you out.

        It gets worse, though - the most germy place in your house isn't your toliet seat, bathroom floor or toliet water (which is clorinated anyway) - i
        • > it's generally your refrigerator door handle,
          > followed by other door handles. Which you
          > probably touch before you eat.

          Must remember:

          - Open fridge
          - take out food on plate
          - close fridge
          - scratch balls
          - eat
        • If you read my post carefully, I said "need a cabinet... if that freaks you out" I also said it was clorinated water and by far not the most germy stuff in your house.

          If I was unclear that it doesn't pose a known health risk, I apologize. To my knowledge the only risk is psychological.

          With that in mind close the lid if it makes you feel better, but to my knowledge it does not stop there from being a mist present.

      • No need to worry ... (Score:5, Funny)

        by Greedo ( 304385 ) on Thursday April 08, 2004 @02:04PM (#8805832) Homepage Journal

        Your Inputs:

        Distance from Impact: 0.00 km = 0.00 miles
        Projectile Diameter: 0.05 m = 0.16 ft = 0.00 miles
        Projectile Density: 1500 kg/m3
        Impact Velocity: 0.01 km/s = 0.00 miles/s
        Impact Angle: 90 degrees
        Target Density: 1000 kg/m3
        Target Type: Competent Rock or saturated soil

        This projectile is too small to traverse the atmosphere intact; it does not form a crater on the surface.

        The energy shown below is deposited in the atmosphere.
        ... so be sure to turn on the fan.

        Energy:

        1.23 Joules = 0.00 KiloTons TNT
        The average interval between impacts of this size somewhere on Earth is less than 1 month.

        Yikes! Less than once a month? You need to see a doctor, pronto!
    • Here's a screen shot [netoriginals.com] of the simulator.

    • Isn't Math Grand! It can extend beyond any rationality. Added to a computer it can completely depart reality.

      I experimented with this using different masses and different velocities. I could get a circumstance where a 400 Kiloton blast would occur about every 54 years on earth from an Iron 20m across. The programmers here are simply too enthusiastic about the end of the world. Nice calculator though and probably correct in the mid ranges of the parameters but not likely on the far ends either way you go.

    • Re:Cool (Score:4, Funny)

      by Scratch-O-Matic ( 245992 ) on Thursday April 08, 2004 @02:50PM (#8806519)
      Reminds me more of the "Radical Vertical Impact Simulator" from "Spies Like Us."

    • Re:Cool (Score:2, Funny)

      by caulfield ( 39545 )

      ...an online program that calculates the effects of an asteroid impact that can be customized for several parameters.

      Of Course! What Armageddon needs is parameters!

      bash$ armageddon --no-ben-affleck --no-bruckheimer --no-rediculous-fucking-mech-warrior-drilling-mach ines-with-shitty-transmissions --with-scenes-longer-that-5-seconds

      Duh! (karma to burn)

  • Now I can answer that age old question. (Score:5, Funny)

    by dtfinch ( 661405 ) * on Thursday April 08, 2004 @01:07PM (#8805099) Journal
    What would happen if a neutron star the size of the moon smacked into the earth at the speed of light?

    Inputs:
    Projectile Diameter: 10000000.00 m = 32800000.00 ft = 6210.00 miles
    Projectile Density: 80000 kg/m3 (ironx10, probably an underestimate)
    Impact Velocity: 300000.00 km/s = 186300.00 miles/s (speed of light)
    Impact Angle: 45 degrees

    Output:
    Energy: 1.88 x 1042 Joules = 4.50 x 1026 MegaTons TNT
    Transient Crater Diameter: 2897115.48 km = 1799108.71 miles
    Final Crater Diameter: 20162191.03 km = 12520720.63 miles

    We might not make it.

  • some hints (Score:5, Funny)

    by AtariAmarok ( 451306 ) on Thursday April 08, 2004 @01:07PM (#8805106)

    when big slow rocks get hit, they can break up into little fast rocks that might impact your ship

    The fastest way to a high score is to treat the rocks as obstacles, and concentrate on shooting the little fast ship.

  • Really big honkin' rocks hit the earth every X million years, so it seems like they would hit the moon every (X*6) million years or so - why is the moon still there?
    • Really big honkin' rocks hit the earth every X million years

      Because the moon is much much much bigger than those "big honkin' rocks". A big meteor hitting earth or the moon is 1km in diameter.

      A 1-2km rock hitting earth destroys most life on a continent on earth. 5-10km destroys most (larger) life across the planet.

      The cockroaches will, of course, continue to live.
    • Because it's REALLY FUCKING BIG. Agh! Why is it that so many people don't get this? (not a rant at you in particular) What is it with everyone thinking that by mining the moon or landing rockets on it we're going to shift it out of its orbit or something? It's -big-, people!

    • Re:Why dosen't the moon get knocked out of orbit? (Score:5, Funny)

      by goodhell ( 227411 ) on Thursday April 08, 2004 @01:44PM (#8805591)
      Actually the moon is slowly expanding its orbit. It is moving farther and farther from the earth and one day the earth will no longer have a moon. Check it out here [mathpages.com]. A brief explanation on our falling moon!

      But by the time we don't have a moon, we'll have a giant space station up there that will take its place. And then everyone will be quoting "That's no moon, that's a space station."
      • > But by the time we don't have a moon, we'll have a giant
        > space station up there that will take its place. And then
        > everyone will be quoting "That's no moon, that's a
        > space station."

        I have a bad feeling about that...

      • But by the time we don't have a moon, we'll have a giant space station up there that will take its place.

        Oh, probably by the time we're capable of building a space station 3,476 km in diameter, we'll probably be able to harness enough energy to simply force the moon to stay in its orbit. :)

        Actually, by then, we'll probably have enough energy to fix Earth's axial tilt and eliminate seasons altogether! I can't wait! *spends next thousand years waiting*

    • Re:Why dosen't the moon get knocked out of orbit? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by pilgrim23 ( 716938 ) on Thursday April 08, 2004 @01:47PM (#8805638)
      It does. I am quite sure the orbital dynamics of the Earth and the Moon have been influenced by impacts. Example: prior to the dinosaur killer 64 million years ago, I do believe that Earth had never before experienced an Ice Age. Even BIGGER example: the Permian mass extinction (remember Trilobites?) 248 million years ago; I think there is good indications that Earth's orbit was quite different prior to that event. Certainly the atmosphere, climate zones, sea structure and compositions etc were. Look at the Moon. Next full Moon, look closely at Tyco Crater. That is one honkin HUGE hole! look north and south near Tyco. What you see is...cracks. Sometime in the past, a collision occurred that almost cracked the moon in half. The luck of the draw isn't every X*6 million years, it is once....only once. So far, Mammals have won this all important lottery...

      • -1 WRONG (Score:3, Informative)

        by winwar ( 114053 )
        You believe incorrectly. There have been multiple ice ages in Earth's geologic history. During the Permian and late Proterozoic for instance. Less extensive or more poorly constrained events happened at other times (Carboniferous, Ordivician and Silurian, and earlier in the Proterozoic, etc.)

        • Really? I stand corrected then. I would be curious though. I have read extensively on the last few Ice Age cycles but had not heard of any earlier ones. A Google I go... My point here though was that orbital dynamics, polar orientation, the wobble in the spin and all the other dynamics of planets can be effected by collisions, gravitational changes (near miss of a very large object), or even gravitational dynamics of far away near misses (moon capture from Asteroid belt by Jupiter, or even collisions bet

      • Re:Why dosen't the moon get knocked out of orbit? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Hentai ( 165906 ) on Thursday April 08, 2004 @02:38PM (#8806349) Homepage Journal
        Umm... Tycho Crater actually isn't nearly as big as Copernicus crater, and even that didn't "crack" anything more than the moon's outer surface. The moon is really, REALLY big - at the size of planets and moons, anything big enough to deform its general shape won't leave a "crater" so much as just mush the moon into two or more smaller objects, that will each collapse into spheres under their own gravity. So if you're seeing a crater on something the size of a planet, it was WAY too small to actually break it.

        Likewise, the earth's orbit hasn't shifted significantly since the moon was formed - which was at least 3 billion years ago. Anything else big enough to shift the earth's orbit would have made another moon. Remember, at these scales, the concept of solididity doesn't work exactly the way you'd think it would.
      • Next full Moon, look closely at Tyco Crater. That is one honkin HUGE hole! look north and south near Tyco. What you see is...cracks. Sometime in the past, a collision occurred that almost cracked the moon in half. The luck of the draw isn't every X*6 million years, it is once....only once. So far, Mammals have won this all important lottery

        At the speeds and scales involved in asteroid impacts, the bodies involved are effectivly liquid. You can't "crack" the moon any more than you can "crack" a drop of wa

  • Everytime I run it (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 08, 2004 @01:08PM (#8805115)
    I die. This isn't very fun. How do you win?

  • Hmm? (Score:2, Funny)

    by Knight Thrasher ( 766792 )
    Doeas this mean the effects of an impact on... the planet? A human? A dead badger?

    • Re:Hmm? (Score:2, Funny)

      by MBAFK ( 769131 )
      "A dead badger?"

      Who cares about the badger, what about the mushrooms and the SNNNAAAKKE!
      • This gives me an idea. At the rate dancing badgers multiply (as seen by that documentary you just referred to), I think that a careful breeding program to make them able to withstand the rigours of space could make for a great asteroid impact shield. Simply put a bunch of them in orbit around the Earth (beyond the Moon), and let them dance & multiply until they complete protect our planet. At night, instead of stars, we can all watch the dancing badgers knowing we're fully protected from asteroid impact

      • Re:Hmm? (Score:3, Funny)

        by shadowbearer ( 554144 )

        I FINALLY got that stupid song out of my head, and you.... you...

        You insensitive clod! :)

        SB
  • Good simulation, but I think the impact would depend upon which part of the planet the meteor/asteroid strikes as the geographic composition would affect that.

  • AWWW.... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Ogrez ( 546269 ) on Thursday April 08, 2004 @01:10PM (#8805133)
    When I saw program... I was thinking along the lines of the Truck dismount..

    Not really that funny until you start thinking of the little mans position riding the meteor...

  • Homeland security issue? (Score:5, Funny)

    by vudufixit ( 581911 ) on Thursday April 08, 2004 @01:10PM (#8805141)
    If you notice an asteroid with a swarthy complexion, a headscarf and a Koran using this simulation against sensitive targets on Earth, please notify the Dept of Homeland Security - immediately.

  • Meteor Crater up near the Grand Canyon (Score:5, Informative)

    by portforward ( 313061 ) on Thursday April 08, 2004 @01:10PM (#8805145)
    I went to the Meteor Crater in Northern Arizona and at the visitor center they had something very similar, with graphics and everything. You put in the speed, angle, size and density of the asteroid, and they had a graphical display of the damage.
    Not to take anything away from the UofA. I live in Tucson, and know some of the planetary scientists.

  • Better yet (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ObviousGuy ( 578567 ) <ObviousGuy@hotmail.com> on Thursday April 08, 2004 @01:11PM (#8805148) Homepage Journal
    Why not start researching realistic methods of destroying/deflecting these menaces before they get the chance to do their damage on us? If we change our mindset from one of reacting to one of being proactive towards the elimination of these threats, we will not only improve our chances of surviving an asteroid attack, we will also be able to reap the scientific technology breakthroughs that came along with such research.

    I'm just a lowly slashbot and don't have much say in how things are run at the upper echelons of government, but I think that it goes without saying that anyone who is serious about eliminating these threats needs to focus energies on 1) identifying suspicious threats, and 2) developing and using technologies that will neutralize those threats.

    • Re:Better yet (Score:4, Interesting)

      by foidulus ( 743482 ) on Thursday April 08, 2004 @01:16PM (#8805227)
      Well, a system to deflect/destroy the asteroid would cost a LOT of money, and despite like you said that there would be scientific breakthroughs etc associated with this, in these times of record deficits, nobody wants to be the one who boasts spending all this money on something that seems like a far off event to most people, they want government spending on something more tangible. However, these people who do not want to spend any money would be the ones pointing fingers at scientists and asking why they cannot do anything about it. I suppose it's one of those paradoxical things, people want the benefits of scientific research, but at the same time don't want to spend any money on it.

    • Re:Better yet (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Why not start researching realistic methods of destroying/deflecting these menaces before they get the chance to do their damage on us? If we change our mindset from one of reacting to one of being proactive towards the elimination of these threats, we will not only improve our chances of surviving an asteroid attack, we will also be able to reap the scientific technology breakthroughs that came along with such research.

      I think it's sad that we can't talk about assteroids without wanting to save the planet

    • Re:Better yet (Score:3, Insightful)

      by elviscious ( 681985 )
      For starters because most of the life threatening asteroids that we see usually end up being discovered as they fly by us. It seems that most of the time we find out about the asteroids after they have just passed dangerously close to us, or when they are so close we would be screwed.

      I would say that it would be more useful to start at the beginning of the problem and search the sky for these first... but I think most of that money was probably redirected to Mars.
    • blahblabh...mindset...blahblah....proactive...blah blahblah....scientific technology breakthroughs....blah....upper echelons of government...blah...focus energies....blahblah...

      You happen to work in middle management?

    • Re:Better yet (Score:3, Informative)

      by 3waygeek ( 58990 )
      Like this proposal [bbc.co.uk] from two former astronauts?

  • ouch (Score:3, Funny)

    by gmiley01 ( 734988 ) <greg.gregmiley@com> on Thursday April 08, 2004 @01:12PM (#8805164) Homepage
    Your Inputs:
    Distance from Impact: 1.00 km = 0.62 miles
    Projectile Diameter: 3218.68 m = 10557.27 ft = 2.00 miles
    Projectile Density: 8000 kg/m3
    Impact Velocity: 80500.00 km/s = 49990.50 miles/s
    Impact Angle: 45 degrees
    Target Density: 3000 kg/m3
    Target Type: Competent Rock or saturated soil
    Energy:
    4.53 x 1029 Joules = 1.08 x 1014 MegaTons TNT
    The average interval between impacts of this size somewhere on Earth is 7.0 x 1012years
    Crater Size:
    What does this mean?

    Transient Crater Diameter: 1423.11 km = 883.75 miles
    Final Crater Diameter: 3678.54 km = 2284.37 miles
    The crater formed is a complex crater.
    Ejecta:
    What does this mean?

    Your position was inside the transient crater and ejected upon impact

    -------------

    Hope this doesn't hit me...

    • Re:ouch (Score:3, Informative)

      by Camel Pilot ( 78781 )
      Impact Velocity: 80500.00 km/s = 49990.50 miles/s

      Ooch is right. I think your velocity might be a little above the mean at a ~1/4 of the speed of light.

      I noticed on their examples they used 20 km/s consistantly. Is this the solar system speed limit or something?

      • Re:ouch (Score:3, Informative)

        by ptbarnett ( 159784 )
        I noticed on their examples they used 20 km/s consistantly. Is this the solar system speed limit or something?

        Try this simulator referenced earlier in the thread:

        http://janus.astro.umd.edu/astro/impact.html [umd.edu]

        If you enter a speed lower than 11.2 km/s, you will get this error message:

        As an object falls toward a planet, it is accelerated by the planet's gravity. The slowest possible impact speed for interplanetary material is the planet's escape velocity. Impact speeds for Earth range from 11.2 km/s to

      • That isn't the speed limit, but there is a speed limit. If something goes too fast, then it will escape into interstellar space. The only way for something to be going faster inside the solar system is if it came from interstellar space and is headed back out; this is, understandably, an extremely rare event. As another poster said, at our distance from the Sun, the max speed (when combined with Earth's orbital speed in a worst-case scenario) is around 72km/sec, and past that the object goes out and never c
    • Suggestion: When the comet or asteriod does come, try to be a bit farther away than 1000 meters from the impact site. You'll be surprised how much the effects drop off with distance.

      We should have a good amount of warning on any impact. Hell, 72 hours notice should be enough to evacuate the area for a 100 year or 1000 year asteriod. This program (with Realistic numbers, the impact above occurs once in 7 trillion years, about 500 times the age of the universe itself) has made me feel much more comfortab

  • Sims for Bruce Willis and two space shuttles? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Vexler ( 127353 ) on Thursday April 08, 2004 @01:14PM (#8805191) Journal
    That way, we can watch "Armageddon" from the comfort of our research lab plasma screens.

  • Other simulation available (Score:5, Funny)

    by MarkGriz ( 520778 ) on Thursday April 08, 2004 @01:14PM (#8805197)
    Seems they've also designed an IP Packet Impact Simulator

  • It might be overkill (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    But could this simulation be used to calculate the airspeed velocity of a laden swallow?

  • Apparent impact on server (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 08, 2004 @01:17PM (#8805238)
    Now we know that striking a webserver with millions of weightless packets, some traveling at the speed of light, will... um, kill it.
  • I remember a comic a few years ago when Hollywood put out all those giant-space-rock-hits-the-earth movies like Deep Impact. In the comic, a couple is standing in front of a giant, garish "Planet Hollywood" restaurant. The man shakes his head sadly and comments:

    "Where's a giant flaming meteor when you need one?"

  • Why not?? (Score:2, Funny)

    by Virtucon ( 127420 )
    Why not put the grad students to work on identification and tracking solutions rather than the assessment of the impact.

    Let's see, any asteroid, of say the size of the HST falling to earth will cause damage. This is not spongeworthy!

    Now scientists and FUD dwellers have a rapid tool to ascertain everyone's doom. What we need now is a wireless version, running on a PDA so we can calculate at any whim a what if scenario because the big rock will fall on us and we didn't see it coming!

    1) First Identify and

  • Aiming? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Alsier ( 709917 ) on Thursday April 08, 2004 @01:19PM (#8805255)
    I can't find the field to enter in my ex-girlfriends coordinates in.

    • Re:Aiming? (Score:3, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      "I can't find the field to enter in my ex-girlfriends coordinates in."

      Is there a coordinate system that makes use of imaginary numbers?

  • I wonder what they'll name the crater... (Score:5, Funny)

    by djward ( 251728 ) on Thursday April 08, 2004 @01:20PM (#8805273)
    where their server used to be?
  • Now they have a /. effected simulator.. Kinda cool. It would be interesting to measure exactly what it takes to /. a server, a simulator to do that would be fun, we could see just how many /.ers we'd need to /. microsoft.com

  • Uh-oh (Score:2, Funny)

    by holzp ( 87423 )
    That crater over there was their server having just been hit by the Slashdot asteriod.

  • Just a couple months late (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Control Group ( 105494 ) * on Thursday April 08, 2004 @01:27PM (#8805357) Homepage
    I could really have used this a couple months ago, when working up background for this [wisc.edu] (that was only one of several contributions, the full list can be seen here [wisc.edu]. And now the impact calculator appears down, so I can't check my back-of-the-napkin calculations...

    According to me, at 2600kg/m^3 (a number I based off very sketchy research, but now seems a lot more reasonable), 600m in diameter, with an impact velocity of 2.7E4m/s (which is ~1.0E4m/s higher than the average "small rock" terminal velocity when it burns up), the impact would release as much energy as the entire nuclear arsenal of the world twice over (disregarding ablation during reentry, which I'm guessing would be nominal).

    And that's hardly a huge rock, either.

    • I'm not clear on your usage of "nominal." I think you mean "minimal."

      Anyway, I'm much more scared of the planet's nuclear arsenal, both because of fallout, and because I think it's way more likely someone in a position of power is going to push the big red button than that the orbit of the Earth will intersect with that of a NEA at exactly the right time. Of course, if big scary aliens are mass-driving us for no apparent reason, I guess all bets are off. ;)

      -Carolyn
      • Well, I meant nominal as in "existing in name only," as opposed to just "named," but you're probably right, "minimal" would have been better. Or possibly "marginal."

        Anyhow

        In terms of risk analysis, you're absolutely right, the nuclear arsenal is much more problematic. Both for the reasons you gave and one more: dead is dead, killing me extra special hard doesn't worry me. So spreading 13MT out over both time and area is more destructive to human life than 26MT released all at once in one spot. Net damage

  • Do they have the impact calculated when that little spaceship comes out and starts shooting at you? I hate that thing.
    bum bum bum bum bumbumbumbumbbububbububuubm
  • what the hell is the u of a doing with the donations i give them every year! obviouisly not not /. proofing their servers! :)

  • Damn Slashdotters (Score:5, Informative)

    by Sycraft-fu ( 314770 ) on Thursday April 08, 2004 @01:29PM (#8805383)
    Load average on the server is currently 98. We are trying to move it to a more powerful, less utilized server. Oh and it's actually hosted at the Electrical and Computer Engineering department.

  • It must be our fault (Score:5, Funny)

    by Saganaga ( 167162 ) on Thursday April 08, 2004 @01:31PM (#8805402) Homepage
    I hear about people proposing that we should be prepared to attack or deflect any large asteroid heading towards Earth. Instead of trying to do that, I think we should try to understand why the asteroids are attacking us. We need to examine what we have done to the asteroids to make them hate us so much. Ultimately, that's the only way to stop asteroid attacks.
  • If you find this information interesting and/or helpful, there's a similar program (in GW-BASIC) included with this book [amazon.com].

    -bs

  • But no body count (Score:3, Funny)

    by shoppa ( 464619 ) on Thursday April 08, 2004 @01:34PM (#8805426)
    It calculates the blast, depth of ejecta, and the force of the air blast at a distance from ground zero.
    But no body count! (Or obliterated body count, probably more appropriate here.)

  • Standard Texas Unit (Score:5, Funny)

    by TomorrowPlusX ( 571956 ) on Thursday April 08, 2004 @01:36PM (#8805457)
    I'm disappointed at the lack of standard-texas-units for the meteor diameter.

    Or, for that matter, the standard volkswagon-bug unit.

  • is here [umd.edu].

    Not only do you get interesting graphics of similar impact craters, but if the impact is big enough you get the Martian from Bugs Bunny making pithy comments while he looks through his telescope at Earth. Cool stuff!


  • What's the big deal? I can recall feeding quarters to a similar machine [klov.com] that did this, like, twenty years ago!
  • did anyone imagine you being behind a giant turret with heavy metal music playing shooting asteroids at planets?

  • Anvil calculations (Score:5, Funny)

    by Cyran0 ( 628243 ) on Thursday April 08, 2004 @01:49PM (#8805665)
    ...or, if you're Wile E. Coyote...

    Inputs:
    Projectile Diameter: 1 m = 3.28 ft
    Projectile Density: 8000 kg/m3
    Impact Velocity: .10 km/s (terminal velocity)
    Impact Angle: 90 degrees

    Output:
    Crater depth: 3 ft
    Crater shape: coyote
    Sign poking out of crater: "Ouch!"

  • Dave Barry's Simulation (Score:4, Funny)

    by 35ft_twinkie ( 676282 ) on Thursday April 08, 2004 @01:54PM (#8805738)
    What happens if a big asteroid hits the Earth? Judging from realistic simulations involving a sledge hammer and a common laboratory frog, we can assume it will be pretty bad.

  • Simulation Points (Score:3, Interesting)

    by justanyone ( 308934 ) on Thursday April 08, 2004 @02:01PM (#8805793) Homepage Journal
    The interesting features for me would be the following:
    • impact in an artic or antartic area where vaporization of large amounts of ice could possibly change global albedo (reflectiveness) as well as add water to oceans;
    • if impact is known about in advance, and predicted to occur in a populated area, would we force people to leave at gunpoint or just 'strongly urge' them to leave;
    • would an impact collapse popular cave destinations or mineshafts?
    • would detonating a large nuke at the point of impact, immediately before the impact, do anything constructive?
    just some ideas...

  • Pretty frequent (Score:3, Interesting)

    by jmichaelg ( 148257 ) on Thursday April 08, 2004 @02:14PM (#8805971) Journal
    The planet killers don't show up very often but the little guys show up routinely. A 3 meter piece of ice has about as much energy as a small nuclear warhead.

    Just the thing to show up unexpectedly during a face-off such as the Indian/Packistani one a few years back.As it happens, a chunk of something [kbcitv.com] did happen to show up at about the same time except it exploded over the mediterranean instead of the Indian/Pak border.

    To me, the immediate value of MIT Linear and JPL's NEAT program isn't in finding the one in 100 million big rocks, it's in spotting these little ones that could be mistaken for a nuke going off at the wrong time.

  • From the same inputs:

    "Your position is in the region which collapses into the final crater.
    Your position is beneath the continuous ejecta deposit."

    So you're in a big hole, covered by rock. Are you going to care about:

    "Sound Intensity: 112 dB (May cause ear pain)"

    "IX. General panic."
  • This program has apparently some flaws (faster than light asteroids) but the most important thing i noted is the "probabilty of impact".

    I thought the probability that an object with the mass of *exactly* an 100m rock would be zero?!

    Discl.: This is not a troll, I just think more explanations/bounds checking would be helpful...
    • If I read the results correctly, the probability is not linked to the object itself, but to the energy created by the impact. So while the chance of an object being exactly 100m in diameter may be zero, the energy created by the impact can also be achieved by other diameter/speed variations. Therefore, the probability of the "energy rating" is larger than zero.
  • Predicted effects of the moon falling out of orbit and striking the earth, as felt from a position 10,000 km from the point of impact

    Effects of Thermal Radiation:
    • Clothing ignites
    • Much of the body suffers third degree burns
    • Newspaper ignites
    • Plywood flames
    • Deciduous trees ignite
    • Grass ignites

    Seismic effects:

    • Richter Scale Magnitude: 14.7 (This is greater than any shaking in recorded history)

    Ejecta:

    • Little rocky ejecta reaches this site;
  • I worked up the K-T impact, experienced from a distance of 2km (the K-T object is estimated to have been 10km in diameter) to try to tweak the simulator. The results:

    Your position was inside the transient crater and ejected upon impact

    haha. All your ejecta are belong to... well, you.
  • So:

    Where did you throw your first asteroid, Redmond or Lindon?

  • it always lands on Moe's
  • The "Seismic Effects" values seem contradictory to me. See this [arizona.edu] example:

    Distance from Impact: 4000.00 km = 2484.00 miles
    [...]

    Seismic Effects:

    The major seismic shaking will arrive at approximately 800.0 seconds.
    Richter Scale Magnitude: 9.1 (This is greater than any shaking in recorded history)
    Mercalli Scale Intensity at a distance of 4000 km:

    I. Not felt. Marginal and long-period effects of large earthquakes.

    II. Felt by persons at rest, on upper floors, or favorably placed.

    Huh? Richte

Slashdot Top Deals

He has not acquired a fortune; the fortune has acquired him. -- Bion

Close