Asteroid Collisions

I have a few astronomy questions I need answering in order to help with a
hypothetical problem.

I need to know the closest place (to the Earth) I can get hold of an
asteroid of around the size (6-12km across depending on your source) of the
one that did for the Dinosaurs, and roughly how fast it's likely to be
travelling? How does such an impact compare to a Nuke? I know it's much
bigger, but roughly how much?

I've already found one information source that helps:

http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/lists/Closest.html

This helps a little with the distance (I can convert AU's), but I'm having
trouble with the size values as it's all new to me. Plus I still have no
idea of what sort of speed it might impact at.

Why do I want all this? Well, it's to help fight off an alien invasion in a
role-playing game (love'em or hate'em). The Gribbles (aliens) have opened a
trans-dimensional rift in Sydney (why couldn't they trash somewhere ****ty
like Alice Springs?) from their world to ours and are intent on wiping us
out and taking over the Earth. So far the Humans are being creamed.

Anyway, things look pretty grim for us and the world in general, but luckily
we have a Cunning Plan that should see off the Gribbles and annoy the
Gamesmaster at the same time (always a bonus). One of our party is a bit of
the mad scientist type and he can build for us a wormhole device which we
can then use to move things and people from place to place. If we build it
powerful enough then we could use it to open said wormhole infront of a
suitable asteroid, let it cruise through and pop out the other side of the
wormhole, handily infront of the Dimensional Rift! (I cannot wormhole it
directly, I have to send it through the Rift)

Then, if all goes to plan it shoots through the Rift, crashes into the
Gribbles planet and SPLAT! Mucho dead alien!

Things to be taken into consideration:

The Rift is only a few miles across and at ground level on both sides. This
will necessitate a very shallow angle of impact. Will this have much effect
on the impact?

The Gribbles world is (from what little we know) mainly ocean supporting a
thick matt of plant life. Will this have much effect on the impact?
Colossal tidal waves perhaps?

These events are taking place around end of October/ start of November 2002
(last year). I know this has a bearing on moving bodies!

The more facts and information I have beforehand, the harder it will be for
the Gamesmaster to argue against it.


In summary I need:

A dino-extinction sized asteroid as close to the Earth as possible (my
wormhole does not need to be so powerful if it is near)

Information regarding it's size, speed (velocity) and approximate force of
impact relative to a Nuke .

Any additional information relating to the above you might think relevant or
amusing

If you can give me general information on this then that would be great.

If you can provide information about a good candidate asteroid and it's
orbit then that'd be fantastic!

Sorry to crash your news group like this, but I've researched this as far as
I can on my own in the time available and I think I need someone
knowledgeable in these matters to help refine my plan to save the
hypothetical Earth.

Unfortunately South East Australia might suffer some 'backwash' through the
Rift when this thing hits on the other side, but that's a small price to
pay.........;-)

Thanks, Pete.

"John Smith" wrote in message
. ..

This helps a little with the distance (I can convert AU's), but I'm having
trouble with the size values as it's all new to me. Plus I still have no
idea of what sort of speed it might impact at.

Why do I want all this? Well, it's to help fight off an alien invasion in
a
role-playing game (love'em or hate'em). The Gribbles (aliens) have opened
a
trans-dimensional rift in Sydney (why couldn't they trash somewhere ****ty
like Alice Springs?) from their world to ours and are intent on wiping us
out and taking over the Earth. So far the Humans are being creamed.

Anyway, things look pretty grim for us and the world in general, but
luckily
we have a Cunning Plan that should see off the Gribbles and annoy the
Gamesmaster at the same time (always a bonus). One of our party is a bit
of
the mad scientist type and he can build for us a wormhole device which we
can then use to move things and people from place to place. If we build
it
powerful enough then we could use it to open said wormhole infront of a
suitable asteroid, let it cruise through and pop out the other side of the
wormhole, handily infront of the Dimensional Rift! (I cannot wormhole it
directly, I have to send it through the Rift)

Then, if all goes to plan it shoots through the Rift, crashes into the
Gribbles planet and SPLAT! Mucho dead alien!


Why think small? Open a wormhole to a black hole and
suck the buggers right off their planet through their
own rift. Sort of like a cosmic vacuum cleaning.
Thwwwwfooop!

Just be sure to get a nice tight fit betwixt their rift
and your wormhole opening.

"John Smith" wrote in message
. ..

This helps a little with the distance (I can convert AU's), but I'm having
trouble with the size values as it's all new to me. Plus I still have no
idea of what sort of speed it might impact at.

Why do I want all this? Well, it's to help fight off an alien invasion in
a
role-playing game (love'em or hate'em). The Gribbles (aliens) have opened
a
trans-dimensional rift in Sydney (why couldn't they trash somewhere ****ty
like Alice Springs?) from their world to ours and are intent on wiping us
out and taking over the Earth. So far the Humans are being creamed.

Anyway, things look pretty grim for us and the world in general, but
luckily
we have a Cunning Plan that should see off the Gribbles and annoy the
Gamesmaster at the same time (always a bonus). One of our party is a bit
of
the mad scientist type and he can build for us a wormhole device which we
can then use to move things and people from place to place. If we build
it
powerful enough then we could use it to open said wormhole infront of a
suitable asteroid, let it cruise through and pop out the other side of the
wormhole, handily infront of the Dimensional Rift! (I cannot wormhole it
directly, I have to send it through the Rift)

Then, if all goes to plan it shoots through the Rift, crashes into the
Gribbles planet and SPLAT! Mucho dead alien!


Why think small? Open a wormhole to a black hole and
suck the buggers right off their planet through their
own rift. Sort of like a cosmic vacuum cleaning.
Thwwwwfooop!

Just be sure to get a nice tight fit betwixt their rift
and your wormhole opening.

"John Smith" wrote in
:

I have a few astronomy questions I need answering in order to help
with a hypothetical problem.

I need to know the closest place (to the Earth) I can get hold of an
asteroid of around the size (6-12km across depending on your source)
of the one that did for the Dinosaurs, and roughly how fast it's
likely to be travelling? How does such an impact compare to a Nuke?
I know it's much bigger, but roughly how much?

I've already found one information source that helps:

http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/lists/Closest.html

This helps a little with the distance (I can convert AU's), but I'm
having trouble with the size values as it's all new to me. Plus I
still have no idea of what sort of speed it might impact at.


The impact speed could be anywhere between 10 and 70 km/sec. If you took
a stab at 50 km/sec and remember that kinetic energy = 1/2 mv^2. To get
the mass assume an asteroid density about the same as rock and calculate
the volume of the asteroid based on a diameter of say 10km (assume a
sperical asteroid :-) ). etc.


Why do I want all this? Well, it's to help fight off an alien
invasion in a role-playing game (love'em or hate'em). The Gribbles
(aliens) have opened a trans-dimensional rift in Sydney (why couldn't
they trash somewhere ****ty like Alice Springs?) from their world to
ours and are intent on wiping us out and taking over the Earth. So
far the Humans are being creamed.

Anyway, things look pretty grim for us and the world in general, but
luckily we have a Cunning Plan that should see off the Gribbles and
annoy the Gamesmaster at the same time (always a bonus). One of our
party is a bit of the mad scientist type and he can build for us a
wormhole device which we can then use to move things and people from
place to place. If we build it powerful enough then we could use it
to open said wormhole infront of a suitable asteroid, let it cruise
through and pop out the other side of the wormhole, handily infront of
the Dimensional Rift! (I cannot wormhole it directly, I have to send
it through the Rift)

E. E. Doc Smith was way ahead of you. His coup de grace was to obtain a
planet from a parallel universe where the speed of light was much higher
than in our universe. They would then fire the superluminal planet
through a hyperspacial tube at the nasty alien's planet. Another
variation was to use a similar scheme but using antimatter planets as the
projectiles.

Llanzlan.


SNIP

"John Smith" wrote in
:

I have a few astronomy questions I need answering in order to help
with a hypothetical problem.

I need to know the closest place (to the Earth) I can get hold of an
asteroid of around the size (6-12km across depending on your source)
of the one that did for the Dinosaurs, and roughly how fast it's
likely to be travelling? How does such an impact compare to a Nuke?
I know it's much bigger, but roughly how much?

I've already found one information source that helps:

http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/lists/Closest.html

This helps a little with the distance (I can convert AU's), but I'm
having trouble with the size values as it's all new to me. Plus I
still have no idea of what sort of speed it might impact at.


The impact speed could be anywhere between 10 and 70 km/sec. If you took
a stab at 50 km/sec and remember that kinetic energy = 1/2 mv^2. To get
the mass assume an asteroid density about the same as rock and calculate
the volume of the asteroid based on a diameter of say 10km (assume a
sperical asteroid :-) ). etc.


Why do I want all this? Well, it's to help fight off an alien
invasion in a role-playing game (love'em or hate'em). The Gribbles
(aliens) have opened a trans-dimensional rift in Sydney (why couldn't
they trash somewhere ****ty like Alice Springs?) from their world to
ours and are intent on wiping us out and taking over the Earth. So
far the Humans are being creamed.

Anyway, things look pretty grim for us and the world in general, but
luckily we have a Cunning Plan that should see off the Gribbles and
annoy the Gamesmaster at the same time (always a bonus). One of our
party is a bit of the mad scientist type and he can build for us a
wormhole device which we can then use to move things and people from
place to place. If we build it powerful enough then we could use it
to open said wormhole infront of a suitable asteroid, let it cruise
through and pop out the other side of the wormhole, handily infront of
the Dimensional Rift! (I cannot wormhole it directly, I have to send
it through the Rift)

E. E. Doc Smith was way ahead of you. His coup de grace was to obtain a
planet from a parallel universe where the speed of light was much higher
than in our universe. They would then fire the superluminal planet
through a hyperspacial tube at the nasty alien's planet. Another
variation was to use a similar scheme but using antimatter planets as the
projectiles.

Llanzlan.


SNIP

Hey yall who cares about space and all of that stuff. Its just so stupid
yall are nerd ya hear so thats all except that your going to kepp
wondering about space and trash for the rest of ya lives. Sincerly , A
student thats not a nerd like all of you. Ha Ha Ha you suck tee hee hee

Hey yall who cares about space and all of that stuff. Its just so stupid
yall are nerd ya hear so thats all except that your going to kepp
wondering about space and trash for the rest of ya lives. Sincerly , A
student thats not a nerd like all of you. Ha Ha Ha you suck tee hee hee

"Andrew Spencer" wrote in message
...
Hey yall who cares about space and all of that stuff. Its just so stupid
yall are nerd ya hear so thats all except that your going to kepp
wondering about space and trash for the rest of ya lives. Sincerly , A
student thats not a nerd like all of you. Ha Ha Ha you suck tee hee hee


Wow this is coming from a webtv user. I'm shocked.

"Andrew Spencer" wrote in message
...
Hey yall who cares about space and all of that stuff. Its just so stupid
yall are nerd ya hear so thats all except that your going to kepp
wondering about space and trash for the rest of ya lives. Sincerly , A
student thats not a nerd like all of you. Ha Ha Ha you suck tee hee hee


Wow this is coming from a webtv user. I'm shocked.

In message ,
Andrew Spencer writes

nothing

OK, that's it. I've added webtv to my kill file.
--
"It is written in mathematical language"
Remove spam and invalid from address to reply.