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Author Topic: Asteroid On Collision Course With Earth: We Are All Going To Die Edition  (Read 4840 times)

RedKing

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Also, try relatively small but incredibly dense objects (think neutron star core). I put in 1.2 billion kg/m^3 (which is still less dense than many projected values for "neutronium").

A 5m projectile at the highest speed, even with a shallow angle of impact, does impressive localized damage but nothing on the planetary scale. A 5km projectile completely melts Earth, but then even a much smaller chunk (say, 800m diameter at a 10-degree angle) could sterilize most of the Earth via fire, seismic and shockwave damage. Although it screws up some of the equations, because it's telling me the amount of energy lost in the atmosphere is equal to negative Infinity x some infinitesmally small number of Joules. The impact velocity is also several times larger than the initial projectile velocity (maybe it's calculating gravitational pull?)



Also fun as an "orbital cannon" simulator. Try a 20m lead (11350kg/m^3) sphere fired from orbit at 72km/s directly downward. The sphere actually turns into an airburst at 727 feet. No direct impact but the airburst creates a shockwave of 1310psi (at 1km distance from target), about 4 times higher than a thermobaric bomb/FAE.
« Last Edit: March 05, 2012, 09:23:41 am by RedKing »
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MetalSlimeHunt

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The chances that it'll actually hit us are apparently at 0.022%

Can I get a source for this?
It is possible that I didn't read it right. The impact chance is still very low regardless, however.
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Criptfeind

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Looks right to me.
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Valid_Dark

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Yes 2.2e-04 = 0.00022 = 0.022%
thats not the most likely one to hit, there is one that is 0.16% but it wont be until 2095
I was discussing this on IRC with some people yesterday :)
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