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Nearby, Recent Interplanetary Collision Inferred

Posted by kdawson on from the when-worlds-collide dept.

The Bad Astronomer writes about a new discovery by the Spitzer Space Telescope, which detected signs of an interplanetary smashup only 100 light-years from here, and only a few thousand years ago. There's a NASA-produced animation of the collision between a Mercury-sized planet and a moon-sized impactor. The collision's aftermath was detected by the presence of what are essentially glass shards in orbit around the star. Here's NASA's writeup.

10 of 88 comments (clear)

  1. Neat video, but not very accurate by olsmeister · · Score: 5, Interesting

    the guy posting the blog states: "the shock wave ring travels around the planet as shown, but when the ring converges on the point opposite the collision point, there would be a huge explosion and a vast plume of material launched into space. No one ever puts that in their animations"

    I thought the same thing when I watched the video - there would be a godawful explosion at the antipode

    1. Re:Neat video, but not very accurate by JohnnyDanger · · Score: 5, Informative

      The impact on Mercury which created the Caloris basin caused some wacky geology at the antipodal point to the collision. This is called "chaotic" or "weird" terrain. Link.

    2. Re:Neat video, but not very accurate by pintpusher · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I immediately wondered if there were any such antipodal geology evident on earth. A quick google turned up this presentation which is pretty darn interesting. IANAGeologist, and can't speak to the accuracy of the claims, but it's still darn cool!

      --
      man, I feel like mold.
  2. And nothing of value got lost? by gmuslera · · Score: 5, Funny

    The civilization that was living in that planet is traveling to a little blue planet that was nearby at a modest 100 light years. Invasion is scheduled for next Tuesday.

    1. Re:And nothing of value got lost? by Shakrai · · Score: 5, Funny

      The civilization that was living in that planet is traveling to a little blue planet that was nearby at a modest 100 light years. Invasion is scheduled for next Tuesday.

      Thankfully the invasion was called off when the aliens learned of mankind's secret weapons: lawyers, building permits and environmental impact statements. Said Fleetlord Atvar, "We came here looking to save our race, not to spend the next two hundred years filling out paperwork. We'll find a new home somewhere else, thank you very much."

      --
      I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
      We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
    2. Re:And nothing of value got lost? by gijoel · · Score: 5, Funny

      Not the civilization per se. Just the infant son of the leading scientist who tried to warn them of the impact.

      My calculation predict that he'll land somewhere in Kansas.

    3. Re:And nothing of value got lost? by StickANeedleInMyEye · · Score: 4, Funny

      The civilization that was living in that planet is traveling to a little blue planet that was nearby at a modest 100 light years. Invasion is scheduled for next Tuesday.

      Actually they landed here ~4 million years ago but accidentally killed the dinosaurs while landing their pyramids.

  3. Re:Wow! by icebike · · Score: 4, Funny

    Hay, you have nothing to complain about. The notice was published in the Galactic Gazette by the Vogon destructor fleet for several centuries.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker's_Guide_to_the_Galaxy

    --
    Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
  4. Re:A question for interstellar arms dealers... by Evil_Ether · · Score: 5, Funny

    More efficient ways yes, but more satisfying?

    --
    If taxation is legalized theft, then Capitalism is a prolonged rape followed by a slow death.
  5. From the NASA writeup by Brian+Gordon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Giant impacts are thought to have stripped Mercury of its outer crust, tipped Uranus on its side and spun Venus backward, to name a few examples

    Is it just me or is that coolest thing ever? Forget massive trains.. the male mind cannot help but drool at the idea of planets colliding.

    Venus is awesome; I can't even imagine what that would look like. The impactor rapidly accelerating the rock around it while the rock on the other side of the planet crumples and deforms under titanic pressure. Maybe the crust would be rigid enough to accelerate rapidly in big chunks while the big oceans of rock in the mantle churn and slowly come up to speed.. or maybe it would just blast most of the mass spaceward, leaving the planet to be pelted by continent-sized rocks for the next thousand years..

    But undoubtedly Uranus is the coolest collision. Gas giants are already terrifying (imagine falling straight down into the north pole of Jupiter, falling straight into the bullseye of roaring winds and bottomless stormclouds).. but a mass large enough to alter its inclination exploding through the upper atmosphere as a fireball, and slowly ablating as it buries itself deeper into progressively denser gases, and plunging deeper and deeper into the unplumbed depths of unimaginably violent, raging, endless storms, and finally sinking to the crushing depths of the great core furnace.. come on Hollywood, put your obscene special effects budget to use doing something like this.