Asteroid Impact Simulator Available

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."

Comments

Cool

[Zoshnell]

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

[Scratch-O-Matic]

Reminds me more of the "Radical Vertical Impact Simulator" from "Spies Like Us."

Now I can answer that age old question.

[dtfinch]

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.

Re:Now I can answer that age old question.

[eggstasy]

Those results are hardly user-friendly. If you're not a physics genius, there's a better simulator here.
In addition to the scientific number-spam, it briefly explains the results and even presents a picture of a real crater that is thought to have been caused by a meteor similar to the one you specified.
It doesn't seem to have the same degree of flexibility as the one in the article, however, but at least it's fun! :)

some hints

[AtariAmarok]

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.

Everytime I run it

[Anonymous Coward]

I die. This isn't very fun. How do you win?

Re:Everytime I run it

[Jhon]

[Cheesey synthesized voice]
A strange game. The only winning move is not to play.
[/Cheesey syntheszed voice]

Homeland security issue?

[vudufixit]

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

[portforward]

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

[ObviousGuy]

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

[foidulus]

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

[elviscious]

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.

ouch

[gmiley01]

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...

Other simulation available

[MarkGriz]

Seems they've also designed an IP Packet Impact Simulator

Apparent impact on server

[Anonymous Coward]

Now we know that striking a webserver with millions of weightless packets, some traveling at the speed of light, will... um, kill it.

Aiming?

[Alsier]

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

Re:Aiming?

[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...

[djward]

where their server used to be?

What do you mean?

[dethl]

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

African or European?

Just a couple months late

[Control Group]

I could really have used this a couple months ago, when working up background for this (that was only one of several contributions, the full list can be seen here. 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.

Damn Slashdotters

[Sycraft-fu]

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

[Saganaga]

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.

Standard Texas Unit

[TomorrowPlusX]

I'm disappointed at the lack of standard-texas-units for the meteor diameter.

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

It's on a faster server now

[Sycraft-fu]

Though it's still kinda loaded. Limited to 100 connections at a time. Still a high load, but should work fine now.

Re:Why dosen't the moon get knocked out of orbit?

[goodhell]

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. 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."

Re:Why dosen't the moon get knocked out of orbit?

[pilgrim23]

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...

Anvil calculations

[Cyran0]

...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

[35ft_twinkie]

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.

No need to worry ...

[Greedo]

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!

-1 WRONG

[winwar]

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.)

Re:Why dosen't the moon get knocked out of orbit?

[Hentai]

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.

I love degenerate cases.

[Atario]

So, if a ball of solid iron the same size as Earth creeps up to us at 1 cm/sec, the "crater" (indentation?) will only be 45 miles across, and no one much will feel it. Also, we can expect this to happen every 800,000 years.