Analysis of Cinematic Depictions of NEA Asteroid and Comet Impacts

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Analysis of Cinematic Depictions of NEA Asteroid
and Comet Impacts
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Analysis of Cinematic Depictions of NEA Asteroid
and Comet Impacts

• Or
• How Hollywood Goes Oops

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Asteroid

• 1997
• Artisan Entertainment
• Asteroids knocked out of orbit by comet onto
  colllision trajectory with earth, US government
  tries to destroy them with lasers, mostly failing

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Asteroid

• 895 Helio
• 147.0 km
• Fragment that hits 4 miles, 90 solid iron,
  velocity of 16 m/s
• Effect breaks dam, causes flood
• 433 Eros
• 131333 km
• Fragment that hits 80 m, isocyanic acid and
  gravel sized particles
• Effect crater of 1 mile, devastation 5-10 miles
  from crater, ejecta 100 miles, 5-6 on richter
  scale, ejecta falls for hours afterward

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Deep Impact

• 1998
• Paramount Pictures
• Doomsday comet headed towards earth, government
  sends heroic astronauts to blow comet up with
  nuclear bombs, with failure of original plan

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Wolf-Beiderman

• Comet surface
• Beiderman
• 1.5 miles
• Causes tidal wave which washes inland as far as
  Ohio River Valley
• Wolf
• 6 miles
• Blown to no bigger than a suitcase-sized
  pieces, causes fireworks-like display

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Armageddon

• 1998
• Buena Vista Entertainment
• Deadly asteroid heads towards earth, NASA has
  amusingly roughneck oil drillers blow it into two
  pieces with a nuclear warhead to bypass earth,
  succeeding in spite of government interference

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Dottie

• Appearance of asteroid surface
• Effect of nuclear warhead
• Final effects of asteroid halves

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Conclusions

• Tidal waves/flooding are the worst result of
  impacts
• Thermal radiation, air blast, and ejecta
  generally exist only visually, not as
  effect-causing phenomena
• Craters rarely exceed hundreds of meters
• Asteroids and comets are spiky
• Dont depend on the government to save us

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References

• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/895_Helio
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/433_Eros
• http//encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/RefArticle.
  aspx?refid761568357
• http//www.mos.org/oceans/planet/features.html
• http//www.lpl.arizona.edu/impacteffects/
• http//occsec.wellington.net.nz/planet/2003/update
  s/030126u.htm
• http//www.solarviews.com/eng/eros.htm
• http//www.imdb.com
• http//img.epinions.com/images/opti/4d/dd/Fisher_P
  rice_Animal_Cracker_Game_Toys-resized200.jpg
• http//intuitor.com/moviephysics/armageddon.html