OFF: Spoiler Alert ! Deep Impact...

[Ted Jackson jr. s2h2]

> From:          Carl Edlund Anderson <cea20 at CUS.CAM.AC.UK>
>
>      Texas-sized or not, the Earth could easily be hammered by
> a astronomical object that nobody noticed until it smacked into
> us.  I recall there was one that zipped by a few 100k miles or so
> away (gnat's whisker, in astronomical terms) that nobody knew
> about until three days after.  Dunno how big it was, but I
> recall the projected explosive force, had it hit, would have
> outstripped the total nuclear weapons stocks of the planet by
> a very, very large amount.
>
> Cheers,
> Carl

Spoiler Alert!!!


Right!  In Deep Impact, the comet is supposed to be the size of Mt.
Everest, and astronomers realize it is a planet-killer.  The resuce
team isn't completely successful--they manage to plant nukes on the
comet, but they can't break it up completely.  The biggest piece IS
diverted, and misses planet Earth, but a relatively small [maybe
one-fifth of the total comet?] piece hits the ocean just off the
Virginia coast, and creates a tidal wave that reaches a couple
hundred miles inland!

BTW, if, as Armageddon posits, an asteroid the size of Texas hit the
planet, would that be enough force to disrupt Earth's orbit?  Not
that anyone would be alive to notice.  Isn't that why Neptune's axis
of rotation is skewed?


*******************************

theo


"...Power in the hands of fools..."