(1.0K) |
Celestial
Impacts
If you have seen the movies Deep Impact or Armageddon, then
you have seen the possible consequences that a large celestial
body striking Earth can cause; in Deep Impact the body is a
comet, in Armageddon an asteroid. Giant impacts have certainly
occured, often with devastating results. |
Computer
simulation by Sandia scientists:
(7.0K)
Five
seconds after a 1.4km wide asteroid crashes into the
ocean off the coast.
(9.0K)
Eleven
seconds after impact-- white areas are water vapor, orange
areas are hot material (greater than 5000ºC)
| The
extinction of the dinosaurs is connected to 10 km+ body striking
the Yucatan Peninsula. (0.0K) |
Planetary
Defense
How do you deal with a large object travelling at 50 km/s that
is on a collision course with Earth? Methods usually fall within
one of two categories-- destruction or deflection. Destruction
is breaking up the object into small pieces. However, some pieces
may still strike Earth. Deflection means keeping the object
intact but nudging it so that it misses Earth. |
(0.0K) | Astronomers
have spotted a large asteroid that will collide with the earth
in three months. The plan is to deflect the asteroid so that
it will miss the Earth. The first step in calculating a motion
problem is to sketch the problem and establish a coordinate
system. For this problem, sketch and define coordinate systems
from three perspectives: coordinate axis at rest compared to
Earth, coordinate axis at rest compared to the sun, and coordinate
axis at rest compared to the asteroid. Include all appropriate
velocity vectors. |
|
(0.0K) | What
is the minimum speed that you would need to give the asteroid
so that it would miss hitting Earth? |
(1.0K) | For
excellent sites on impacts, go to http://www.sandia.gov/media/comethit.htm,
and http://www.cs.sandia.gov/SEL.
Clicking will launch a new window. |
(0.0K) | (0.0K) | (0.0K) | (0.0K) | (0.0K) |