Deep Impact
Check this out: You can now calculate the effects of a meteor strike thanks to the Department of Planetary Sciences at the University of Arizona. And calculate how likely such a strike is.
Am I the only one who finds such things endlessly fascinating?
By the way, when I hit the "Calculate Effects" button, I was a bit disappointed. I was expecting a "kaboom." There was supposed to be an Earth-shattering "kaboom."
COOL BABY BONERS HAHAHA
Fun! Unfortunately their model clearly breaks down when using sol escape velocity objects similar to the size of the Earth. I suspect they are using a flat earth model :-)
This insignificant planetoid has been found guilty of crimes against the universe.
http://www.wiseacre-gardens.com/buttons/marvin.html
I've always been fascinated by that stuff. I love watching the Science channel on Tuesday nights for all the space and cosmic stuff!
I set up a scenario where a 13 km rock hit Paris. And though I can't understand all them science and numbers, it looks to me like everything here in New Hampshire would still turn out hunky-dorey.
I'll have to look up the authors when I start at the UofA this fall!
I once saw a similar, very old school program to calculate effects from nuclear bomb blasts in Byte magazine in the late 80's. Type the good ole BASIC code in, and proceeded to terrify myself nice and good! (we lived about 30 miles from an AF base in CA at the time)
Of COURSE that night I was woken up by what, to me, looked like nuclear bomb blasts in the distance in the direction of the base!
Turned out to be sheet lightning, which I'd never seen or read about before then, but let me tell you, I got woken up with a start; it sounds like God is beating the entire sky like a giant piece of sheet metal continuously, and it almost looks like the sky is on fire as it flashes almost like a stobe for minutes at a time.
"No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There's always a boom tomorrow. What? Look, somebody's got to have some damn perspective around here. Boom, sooner or later. BOOM!"