Asteroid to hit Mars

Discussion in 'Astronomy, Exobiology, & Cosmology' started by Orleander, Dec 21, 2007.

  1. orcot Valued Senior Member

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    3,488
    ... and what would be the change the object get's captured as a new moon, the changes must be slim but Mars pretty much has proven that the conditions are ideaal for this
     
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  3. Myles Registered Senior Member

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    You are confused. I know that story and it never mention meteors, asteroid, meteorites or anything of the kind.
     
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  5. Gustav Banned Banned

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    12,575
    well!
    it's about time!
    been like waiting forever!
     
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  7. Orleander OH JOY!!!! Valued Senior Member

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    Jesus H Christ!!!
    SOMETHING is gonna hit mars. I swear, you guys can find anything to fight about. Instead of talking about the impact it will have on the planet, you want to quibble about what to call the hunk of rock.

    I hope when it hits, we get to see evidence of some underground water.
     
  8. Myles Registered Senior Member

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    5,553
     
    Last edited: Dec 24, 2007
  9. blobrana Registered Senior Member

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    2,214
    LOL,
    Spirit was mentioned.

    (It was just my observation that it is a simple case of giving information to those wanting to learn, but it is simpler, according to the second of the Three Spirits, to ignore `ignorance`, as the only way that the `ignorant` can learn is by their own self-will. )
    BTW, I believe there is a `ignore feature` on this site for just those occasions. Just click on the offenders avatar and choose the appropriate option...
     
  10. Myles Registered Senior Member

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    5,553
    I don't know the story; I was pulling your leg. What it says about the ignorant chimes with my own experience. And that brings to mind Alexander Pope:

    " A little learning is a dangerous thing "


    Merry Christmas
     
  11. kaneda Actual Cynic Registered Senior Member

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    1,334

    Of course, Myles. This is not offensive and I can't think why I thought you were jabbering.

    Where did I assume they have the same overall densities? The overall density of a planet has no effect in this sense on an impact on it's surface. It is the density of the material at the impact area which counts. Like for like at the impact area on Mars and Earth, an impact crater on Mars will be far bigger than an impact crater from the same incoming rock at the same speed in both cases.

    Obviously I meant the gravity pulling down. A busy cybercafe is not the best place to concentrate, especially when you have kids playing "shoot-em-ups" at full volume.
     
  12. kaneda Actual Cynic Registered Senior Member

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    1,334
    Everyone starts off with a little learning. It's all in the application of the learning.
     
  13. kaneda Actual Cynic Registered Senior Member

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    1,334
    A good sized impact on the Earth facing side of Mars in our night time would be more valuable to us than any Mars rover.
     
  14. kaneda Actual Cynic Registered Senior Member

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    invert nexus. I'd call someone an ass when they don't trust the link they give and deliberately misquote from it to back up a wrong statement.
     
  15. superluminal I am MalcomR Valued Senior Member

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    Well gents, as far as impact craters go, the energy of impact is of far more significance than slightly different regional densities or even the difference in the gravitational field of the planet, especially given the relatively comparable nature of the earth and mars.

    A given impactor size at a given impact energy will leave about the same sized hole on earth or mars. What will be different is the altitude that the ejecta will reach. Obviously it will go quite a bit higher on mars.
     
  16. superluminal I am MalcomR Valued Senior Member

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    10,876
    Or, maybe right under the ground-path of the MRO.
     
  17. invert_nexus Ze do caixao Valued Senior Member

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    Yeah.
    Now if you could just find someone who did that.
    The link and quote I provided, however, are right on.

    Asteroid=big ass rock in space.
    Meteroid=little ass rock in space.
    Meteor=light show from either of the above burning through the atmosphere.
    Meteorite=the remains of a meteoroid or asteroid after it has hit ground.

    Badda bing.

    This is simple definition type stuff. I really don't get why you've got this stick up your ass about it.
     
  18. iceaura Valued Senior Member

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    30,994
    Probably the reason it was called an asteroid in the first place was to differentiate it from a comet, the other big dramatic thing that often smacks into planets.

    This thing is big enough to do very serious damage to human arrangements on Earth. If it hits Mars, that will be the second major strike on a planet in just a few years. I'm beginning to wonder about the the ordinary calculations of odds for these things hitting a planet - one every so many millions of years hitting earth, etc.

    I know Jupiter and even Mars are much more in the target range, but still - -
     
  19. Read-Only Valued Senior Member

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    10,296
    It's because you, or I or someone else said something that he disagrees with. That automatically makes the person wrong because they READ it some where and he maintains that if it in a book it's WRONG!!!!

    Badda-ding, badda bing. Simple as that.
     
  20. orcot Valued Senior Member

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    Does anyone now when this smurf will crash into mars?
     
  21. Myles Registered Senior Member

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    I don't want to quibble but I'd have thought that, everything else being equal, the size of the crater on earth woild be larger because of the acelaration due to gravity, giving a bigger value for the kinetic energy.I shall use round numbers for the sake of simplicity. Acceleration due to gravity on earth = 30' per sec^2 and 10' per sec^2 on mars. If we square these numbers we get a value of 900 for earth and 100 for mars, a ratio of 9:1. Surely that would make some difference.

    In practice, the much greater density of earth's atmosphere would burn up a proportion of the asteroid as well as deccelerating it.

    Apologies for not using metric measure but I'm going on what I learned some sixty years ago

    Merry Christmas all
     
  22. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    It is about as large as the one that hit in New Mexico, Meteor crater. It only has a one in seventyfive percent chance of hitting Mars and IF it hits , it will hit the very southermost area.

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

     
    Last edited: Dec 25, 2007
  23. superluminal I am MalcomR Valued Senior Member

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    10,876
    Well, I was going to anticipate that point, but I was too lazy to at the time.

    If two equivalent asteroids were held above earth and mars and dropped form the same height, it would be as you said.

    But the asteroid and the planet already have some very high relative speed. Their orbits are (we can assume) not common. So, while the gravity of the planet will have some definite effect, I would estimate it to minimally alter the existing speed difference as the two bodies come together. I suppose some fairly simple calculations could settle how much additional delta V the gravity of earth vs mars gives the asteroid (assuming all other trajectory parameters are the same) that is already closing at some tens of km/sec.

    This is my physical intuition talking here. No doubt the respective gravities of earth and mars will "suck" the asteroid in and add additional speed. It's just the magnitude of the additional delta V vs the already existing speed that I suspect is not that significant.

    I'd love to be proven wrong here if someone was willing to do the calculations?

    I also suspect that the earths atmosphere, for a good sized asteroid moving at 17 to 20 km/sec would not be "noticed" much by the asteroid in the 1 to 2 seconds it took to pass through the dense portion of the atmosphere.
     

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