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Earth Could Collide With Other Planets
Everybody put on your helmet;
Smivs writes "Astronomers calculate there is a tiny chance that Mars or Venus could collide with Earth — though it would not happen for at least a billion years.
The finding comes from simulations to show how orbits of planets might evolve billions of years into the future. But the calculated chances of such events occurring are tiny. Writing in the journal Nature, a team led by Jacques Laskar shows there is also a chance Mercury could strike Venus and merge into a larger planet. Professor Laskar of the Paris Observatory and his colleagues also report that Mars might experience a close encounter with Jupiter — whose massive gravity could hurl the Red Planet out of our Solar System."
There are tiny odds of just about anything happening, why is it news?
first they announce that the recession is over in the UK (yeh right!)
then we find out earth is about to collide with another planet
at least the later is more believable :D
Next up.. How to make a tinfoil hat that can stop the CIA's mind control rays.
You have my undivided attention.
Posts not to be taken literally. Almost everything is sarcasm.
Let's go back to crystalline spheres and immutable heavens. That was a much safer design model
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
They're killing independent George!
Ok, here's a question: Has this happened in the past?
It doesn't take long playing with simple, fun orbit simulators to see that while most planetesimals get glommed, a few get chucked. Escape velocity from the Sun at Mars distance is WAY MORE* (technological term) than Jupiter could perturb. Some things tossed could have 'very long' periods, but still not escape. THAT would be news.
And yes, I am a rocket scientist and yes, I HAVE done the math.
Vcircular * sqrt(2) = Vescape! 41% is too much, even for Jupiter.
How do you know this is the fault of the scientists? It could very easily be lazy and/or sensationalistic journalism -- same stuff as "this has as much info as x libraries of congress" or "as much volume as x ping-pong balls", or half of what kdawson posts.
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
Actually, this result is a big deal. First, the authors used powerful new techniques to solve some long-standing problems in these sorts of simulations. This has allowed them to run simulations far further into the future (or the past) than was possible before. Second, they included General Relativity and the affects of planetary satellites in their calculations, which improves the precision of their results. This has not been done before. Third, this work is the first to put a quantitative time scale on instability in the inner Solar System. Up until now we knew that the orbits of the inner planets were unstable, but we had no idea how long it would take for those instabilities to lead to major changes in orbital parameters. Finally, this result has profound implications for the stability of planetary systems in general, which affects the probability of their being Earth-like planets around other stars, and thus the chances of there being animal life out there. This is a major paper and may become the baseline for this entire sub-field. It certainly deserved to be published in Nature. It is too bad that the media chose to glom onto the sensationalist aspects of the story.
Just because you are paranoid does not mean that no-one is out to get you.
Think of it in terms of two cars colliding head-on, literally on a planetary scale: the planetary crust that seems like solid rock to you on the human scale is more like the crumple zone of a car's frame. When the planets collide, they would buckle and fuse together. In the example of 2 cars colliding, there would likely be some rebound and the cars would come to rest a few feet apart (the cars' respective centres of gravity are insignificant compared to the forces of friction on the pavement). On the planetary scale, what's left of the planets' respective centres of gravity would continue to pull & keep them together (with a relatively small percentage of debris lost, most of that would then be recaptured into orbit for the immediate future).
When all of your wishes have been granted, many of your dreams will be destroyed - Marilyn Manson
Why can't they come up with a plausible theory of apocalypse by snu-snu?
Unfortunately, it seems, the world ends not with a bang but a whimper.
A Jupiter like planet has been catapulted out of another solar system and is planning a visit... Latest calculations predict collision with Earth somewhere at the end of 2012.
"The year, 1994. From out of space, comes a runaway planet, hurtling between the Earth and the Moon, unleashing cosmic destruction. Man's civilization is cast in ruin.
"Two thousand years later, Earth is reborn. A strange new world rises from the old. A world of savagery, super-science, and sorcery.
"But one man bursts his bonds to fight for justice. With his companions, Ookla the Mok and Princess Ariel, he pits his strength, his courage, and his fabulous Sunsword, against the forces of evil. He is Thundarr, the Barbarian!"
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?