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Simulation of Close Asteroid Fly-By
c0mpliant writes "NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory have released a simulation of the path of an asteroid, named Apophis, that will come very close to Earth in 2029 — the closest predicted approach since humans have monitored for such heavenly bodies. The asteroid caused a bit of a scare when astronomers first announced that it would enter Earth's neighborhood some time in the future. However, since that announcement in 2004, more recent calculations have put the odds of collision at 1 in 250,000."
* O - Earth
|
| ---- Asteroid
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...that the odds were 4 in a million...
looking at the simulation, the amount of energy required to bring this into any orbit at all seems really really really high
Hmmm . . . a giant harpoon, tethered by a long nanotube to the Earth. We could nail that asteroid, like Captain Ahab did to Moby Dick. We could travel back and forth on a space elevator. The more alcohol I drink, the better this idea sounds!
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Then just change the gravitational constant of the universe....duh
Actually I'm pretty sure that's a standard sci-fi technique. Send the big mining robot to the asteroid. It then starts processing the asteroid and ejects the waste material in order to produce thrust to head towards Earth (aiming for an orbit rather than a collision :).
Actually, the standard Sci-Fi technique is:
- Send big mining robot.
- Big mining robot passes through exotic magnetic field and develops conscience.
- Big mining robot invades Earth; possibly to mine it.
Q, stop posting on Slashdot. Or is the Continuum that boring these days?
I'm surprised the original post didn't link to this article from Sandia National Labs. There is a pretty interesting analysis of what would actually happen if an asteroid did hit (complete with nifty graphics).
From the Sandia article:So what would happen during such an impact, really? According to the simulation, the impact would vaporize the asteroid, deform the ocean floor, and eject hundreds of cubic miles of superheated water vapor, melted rock, and other debris into the upper atmosphere and back into space. Much of the debris would then rain down over the world for the next several hours and also form a high global cloud, says David Crawford of Sandia's Computational Physics and Mechanics Department. The shock wave from the impact would level much of the New England region. The heat would incinerate cities and forests there instantaneously. The global cloud would then lower temperatures worldwide, and a global snowstorm likely would ensue and last several days to several weeks, initiating a "nuclear winter" that would create more hardships for earth's inhabitants.
"Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish"
Albert Einstein
Ride a motorcycle at 60 MPH and careen in front of a car doing 50 MPH from right to left, with a free beer sitting just above the right headlight. Keep your eye on the front of the car as you approach and after you pass. Grab the free beer as you slide by, just miss getting hit by the car.
That is the same as the relative positions of this simulation.
The laws of thermodynamics are against you.
And art deco was in the 20's and 30's.