Comments On: Asteroid to Almost Hit Earth In 10 Days by Charles Mudede

Re: Asteroid to Almost Hit Earth In 10 Days

lark — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 17:51:46 -0800

Charles,
I've telescope and my hope is to see it pass. Although, I'm dubious I will. Still, I think it a cool event.
Posted by lark

Re: Asteroid to Almost Hit Earth In 10 Days

doloresdaphne — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 12:18:26 -0800

I secretly wish for one to hit earth

(what's wrong with me)?
Posted by doloresdaphne

Re: Asteroid to Almost Hit Earth In 10 Days

Will in Seattle — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 11:28:16 -0800

Hey, I got an idea!

Let's sequester the NASA budget so that we don't know we're all going to die, and spend it on stupid wars on the other side of the world that make no sense!
Posted by Will in Seattle

Re: Asteroid to Almost Hit Earth In 10 Days

Urgutha Forka — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 10:46:14 -0800

Cool!

I hope it heads directly for the Westboro Baptist Church.
Posted by Urgutha Forka

Re: Asteroid to Almost Hit Earth In 10 Days

Matt from Denver — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 10:29:07 -0800

@ 12, it will be a lot more likely to land in the ocean and cause a tsunami.
Posted by Matt from Denver

Re: Asteroid to Almost Hit Earth In 10 Days

Max Solomon — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 09:31:43 -0800

we're going to get hit by one sooner or later. you should pray they're only this big, and that it hits somewhere useless like kamchatka or eastern australia.

the last big one to hit the PNW gave us the basalt flows of central wa, the snake river plan, and it still giving us yellowstone.
Posted by Max Solomon

Re: Asteroid to Almost Hit Earth In 10 Days

Joe Szilagyi — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 09:24:55 -0800

I love how they included this:

VI. Felt by all, many frightened. Some heavy furniture moved; a few instances of fallen plaster. Damage slight.

In the midst of being engulfed by a hell on Earth living rolling fireball of nuclear level doom that is wider than the horizon, having burning 30 foot chunks of Chicagoland soil raining down on our heads, and getting razed by an air blast moving at Mach 3, all the while dealing with a 2012-film level 11.6 earthquake that probably just activated the entire Ring of Fire and caused every volcano from Vancouver to California to probably Yellowstone to erupt.

My poor living room's feng shui.
Posted by Joe Szilagyi

Re: Asteroid to Almost Hit Earth In 10 Days

Joe Szilagyi — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 09:19:29 -0800

If you up the values to 100,000 meters wide (a 56 mile wide asteroid) and have it hit Chicago, this is what happens to Seattle, in order.

Time for maximum radiation: 57 seconds after impact

Visible fireball radius: 657 km ( = 408 miles )
The fireball appears 74.6 times larger than the sun
Thermal Exposure: 8.09 x 109 Joules/m2
Duration of Irradiation: 3.5 hours
Radiant flux (relative to the sun): 643

Effects of Thermal Radiation:

Clothing ignites
Much of the body suffers third degree burns
Newspaper ignites
Plywood flames
Deciduous trees ignite
Grass ignites

The major seismic shaking will arrive approximately 6.67 minutes after impact.
Richter Scale Magnitude: 11.6 (This is greater than any earthquake in recorded history)
Mercalli Scale Intensity at a distance of 2000 km:

VI. Felt by all, many frightened. Some heavy furniture moved; a few instances of fallen plaster. Damage slight.

VII. Damage negligible in buildings of good design and construction; slight to moderate in well-built ordinary structures; considerable damage in poorly built or badly designed structures; some chimneys broken.

The ejecta will arrive approximately 12.7 minutes after the impact.
At your position there is a fine dusting of ejecta with occasional larger fragments
Average Ejecta Thickness: 9.64 meters ( = 31.6 feet )
Mean Fragment Diameter: 1.65 mm ( = 0.648 tenths of an inch )

The air blast will arrive approximately 1.68 hours after impact.
Peak Overpressure: 1.74e+06 Pa = 17.4 bars = 247 psi
Max wind velocity: 1030 m/s = 2300 mph
Sound Intensity: 125 dB (Dangerously Loud)
Damage Description:

Multistory wall-bearing buildings will collapse.
Wood frame buildings will almost completely collapse.
Multistory steel-framed office-type buildings will suffer extreme frame distortion, incipient collapse.
Highway truss bridges will collapse.
Highway girder bridges will collapse.
Glass windows will shatter.
Cars and trucks will be largely displaced and grossly distorted and will require rebuilding before use.
Up to 90 percent of trees blown down; remainder stripped of branches and leaves.

But if you live through all that? You WIN.
Posted by Joe Szilagyi

Re: Asteroid to Almost Hit Earth In 10 Days

Joe Szilagyi — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 09:16:59 -0800

60 meter asteroid; glass windows shatter at 1 mile from impact.

http://impact.ese.ic.ac.uk/cgi-bin/crate…

100 meter asteroid:

http://impact.ese.ic.ac.uk/cgi-bin/crate…

Multistory wall-bearing buildings will collapse.
Wood frame buildings will almost completely collapse.
Multistory steel-framed office-type buildings will suffer extreme frame distortion, incipient collapse.
Highway truss bridges will collapse.
Highway girder bridges will collapse.
Glass windows will shatter.
Cars and trucks will be largely displaced and grossly distorted and will require rebuilding before use.
Up to 90 percent of trees blown down; remainder stripped of branches and leaves.

Posted by Joe Szilagyi

Re: Asteroid to Almost Hit Earth In 10 Days

Sean — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 09:13:15 -0800

Ninja'd by @6!
Posted by Sean

Re: Asteroid to Almost Hit Earth In 10 Days

Sean — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 09:12:21 -0800

@3: http://impact.ese.ic.ac.uk/ImpactEffects… lets you play with parameters. We know this one's a silicate asteroid, so the density's low. Assuming normal asteroidal speed and an average 45 degree impact, this one would have really minimal impact. Here's the results I got for being just 100 km away: http://impact.ese.ic.ac.uk/cgi-bin/crate…
Posted by Sean

Re: Asteroid to Almost Hit Earth In 10 Days

Joe Szilagyi — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 09:09:26 -0800

@3 let's say this asteroid hits 1 mile from you.

http://impact.ese.ic.ac.uk/ImpactEffects…

Using standard values from them:

Your Inputs:

Distance from Impact: 1000.00 meters ( = 3280.00 feet )
Projectile diameter: 45.00 meters ( = 148.00 feet )
Projectile Density: 1500 kg/m3
Impact Velocity: 17.00 km per second ( = 10.60 miles per second )
Impact Angle: 45 degrees
Target Density: 2500 kg/m3
Target Type: Sedimentary Rock
Energy:

Energy before atmospheric entry: 1.03 x 1016 Joules = 2.47 MegaTons TNT
The average interval between impacts of this size somewhere on Earth is 342.4 years
Major Global Changes:

The Earth is not strongly disturbed by the impact and loses negligible mass.
The impact does not make a noticeable change in the tilt of Earth's axis (< 5 hundreths of a degree).
The impact does not shift the Earth's orbit noticeably.
Atmospheric Entry:

The projectile begins to breakup at an altitude of 72500 meters = 238000 ft
The projectile bursts into a cloud of fragments at an altitude of 15100 meters = 49700 ft
The residual velocity of the projectile fragments after the burst is 6.71 km/s = 4.17 miles/s
The energy of the airburst is 8.73 x 1015 Joules = 2.09 x 100 MegaTons.
No crater is formed, although large fragments may strike the surface.
Air Blast:

What does this mean?

The air blast will arrive approximately 46 seconds after impact.
Peak Overpressure: 3160 Pa = 0.0316 bars = 0.449 psi
Max wind velocity: 7.35 m/s = 16.4 mph
Sound Intensity: 70 dB (Loud as heavy traffic)

Posted by Joe Szilagyi

Re: Asteroid to Almost Hit Earth In 10 Days

johnjjeeves — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 09:01:46 -0800

And if you actually go to that website you'll see the odds of any of those NEO's hitting earth are pretty steep. Man continues to be the number one threat against man in the short, medium, and long term.
Posted by johnjjeeves

Re: Asteroid to Almost Hit Earth In 10 Days

rob! — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 09:00:06 -0800

@3, you'd notice it in your neighborhood. Just as a quick comparison, the Arizona meteor crater, 0.75 mile across, is thought to have been produced by a 50-meter object (which lost about half its mass during re-entry). Composition as well as speed and angle of impact are some obvious variables.
Posted by rob!

Re: Asteroid to Almost Hit Earth In 10 Days

Urgutha Forka — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 08:41:37 -0800

How much damage would a 45 meter asteroid do if it hit the planet?
Posted by Urgutha Forka

Re: Asteroid to Almost Hit Earth In 10 Days

Joe Szilagyi — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 08:41:13 -0800

Maybe if an asteroid takes out a US city they'll reallocate Homeland Security cash into a new War on Outer Space. I would apply in a heartbeat to work for the Department of Homeworld Security.
Posted by Joe Szilagyi

Re: Asteroid to Almost Hit Earth In 10 Days

Matt from Denver — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 08:19:23 -0800

I'm still more concerned about what humans are doing yo Earth. All this project has shown is that asteroids pass us closely all the time.
Posted by Matt from Denver