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DEEP IMPACT: NASA set to create it's own fireworks

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Phoenix

Member
Hitokage said:
By the same token, I suggest you learn a little astronomy and physics or just shut up. The Shadow had it right on the money.

Physics 3 and Quant.


Even if we did break the comet into pieces you won't be putting enough energy to make the seperate pieces diverge far at all. The overwhelming momentum of the comet as a whole won't just go away. Smaller fragments and dust, sure they'll fly every which way... but not anything of significant size.

If you don't know the composition of the materials, how do you know you won't actually shatter the body altogether - like say if its not solid in its core?
 

fallout

Member
Let's just throw physics out the window for a moment here. Let's just say that Nasa did fuck up and nudge a rather large piece towards us. If we had the power to nudge a comet towards us, wouldn't we have the same power to nudge it back?
 

Phoenix

Member
fallout said:
Let's just throw physics out the window for a moment here. Let's just say that Nasa did fuck up and nudge a rather large piece towards us. If we had the power to nudge a comet towards us, wouldn't we have the same power to nudge it back?

There isn't a way for them to change the direction of the object from heading away from us to heading towards us with the masses they are using.
 

Hitokage

Setec Astronomer
"There isn't a way for them to change the direction of the object from heading away from us to heading towards us with the masses they are using."

"Considering that they are trying to discover the composition of the asteroid, and that the subsequent path of the asteroid could change radically after the impact, is this approach really the smartest idea?"
 

Wellington

BAAAALLLINNN'
Hitokage said:
"There isn't a way for them to change the direction of the object from heading away from us to heading towards us with the masses they are using."

"Considering that they are trying to discover the composition of the asteroid, and that the subsequent path of the asteroid could change radically after the impact, is this approach really the smartest idea?"

:lol

You took physics 3 and Quantum Mechanics, maybe you should go back and take a look at your momentum notes and study up on material science. :lol
 

fallout

Member
Phoenix said:
There isn't a way for them to change the direction of the object from heading away from us to heading towards us with the masses they are using.
::rubs forhead::

I think you're trying to throw gravity into the mix here. Unless you want to sit here and work out all the trajectory calculations (taking into account the other celestial bodies that it would contend with ... like you know, the Sun), I think we can just assume that it's 0. This is obviously some kind of physics phantasy land or something.
 

Phoenix

Member
Hitokage said:
"There isn't a way for them to change the direction of the object from heading away from us to heading towards us with the masses they are using."

"Considering that they are trying to discover the composition of the asteroid, and that the subsequent path of the asteroid could change radically after the impact, is this approach really the smartest idea?"


Yep, its the reading - she no works. The problem isn't with the change in direction, its the change in the surface. A comets course changes slightly overtime due to the emissions from its surface vents. If you don't know the internal composition of the object, you could fragment the inside of it creating fractures on the surface that would result in more and/or larger vents being opened on the surface.

So since you have a good understanding of physics, what happens to the core of a comet that is mostly a crystaline lattice as opposed to entirely solid. That's right - the inside can fracture. So go make a crystaline surface with some rock crystals and then wrap it with mud and dirt (one of the possible compositions of comets). Now hang it from the ceiling piniata style and throw the equivalent force at it. Now apply the same force (including heat) to that object as is applied by the sun and other celestial bodies on it.

Post pics of your results.

Oh, and don't forget to apply torsion to the object to account for that fractured inner surface - the source of the jets on the surface.
 

Hitokage

Setec Astronomer
Phoenix said:
Yep, its the reading - she no works.
Aw. Poor misunderstood Phoenix. If only he could somehow explain his thoughts to the world in ways other than the nonsensical.
Blah blah blah
I'll do that only if you show that it has any chance of making any significant difference.
 

Wellington

BAAAALLLINNN'
Whatever gaseous eruptions occur as a result of the fracturing of the surface of the meteor should not generate enough energy to significantly change the trajectory of the body.
 

Phoenix

Member
Hitokage said:
Aw. Poor misunderstood Phoenix. If only he could somehow explain his thoughts to the world in ways other than the nonsensical.
I'll do that only if you show that it has any chance of making any significant difference.


Sure, look at the telemetry for the comet Linear.

Now get cracking :D
 

Phoenix

Member
Wellington said:
Whatever gaseous eruptions occur as a result of the fracturing of the surface of the meteor should not generate enough energy to significantly change the trajectory of the body.

Its not the surface, its the core - the insides, the stuff that you're flinging mass energy to discover the compositition of.
 

Phoenix

Member
Scientists said preliminary data showed that the impact provoked two successive flashes, which could mean the comet's surface and depth are composed of two different matters.

"What you see is something really surprising. First, there is a small flash, then there's a delay, then there's a big flash and the whole thing breaks loose. We may have been able to detect some structural response to the impact," mission co-investigator Pete Shultz, of Brown University.


Hito, Shadow, Wellington, et all does that normally happen during a collision of two objects in space? Or just two object that collide in general?


You guys are keyed in on astrophysics and such - explain what happened.
 
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