The Cosmic Perspective (9th Edition)
9th Edition
ISBN: 9780134874364
Author: Jeffrey O. Bennett, Megan O. Donahue, Nicholas Schneider, Mark Voit
Publisher: PEARSON
expand_more
expand_more
format_list_bulleted
Videos
Textbook Question
Chapter 12, Problem 48EAP
Impact Energies. A relatively small impact crater 20 kilometers in diameter could be made by a comet 2 kilometers in diameter traveling at 30 kilometers per second (30,000 m/s).
- Assume that the comet has a total mass of
- Convert your answer from part a to an equivalent in megatons of TNT, the unit used for nuclear bombs. Comment on the degree of devastation the impact of such a comet could cause if it struck a populated region on Earth. (Hint: One megaton of TNT releases
Expert Solution & Answer
Want to see the full answer?
Check out a sample textbook solution
Students have asked these similar questions
Impact Energy. Consider a comet about 2 kilometers across with a mass of 4 × 1012 kg. Assume that it crashes into Earth at a speed of 30,000 meters per second (about 67,000 miles per hour).
a. What is the total energy of the impact, in joules? (Hint: The kinetic energy formula tells us that the impact energy in joules will be 1 × m × v2, where 2 m is the comet’s mass in kilograms and v is its speed in meters per second.)
b. A 1-megaton nuclear explosion releases about 4 × 1015 joules of energy. How many such nuclear bombs would it take to release as much energy as the comet impact?
c. Based on your answers, comment on the degree of devastation the comet might cause.
1. Suppose you have an Oort cloud comet on an orbit with pericenter distance 10,000 AU, and apocenter distance 20,000 AU.
a. What are the semi-major axis and eccentricity of the orbit?
b. What are the specific energy (energy per unit mass), and specific angular momentum (angular momentum per unit mass) of the comet?
c. How fast is the comet moving at apocenter (relative to the Sun)?
The Tunguska asteroid is estimated to have had a diameter of 50 m, and to have produced an explosion equivalent to 10 megatons of TNT (1 megaton = 4.2 x 1015 joules). Assume that the asteroid was a sphere with density 2 g/cm3. Using the kinetic energy formula K = ½ mv2, where m is the mass and v is the speed, to estimate the speed of the asteroid. Assume that all kinetic energy is converted into the energy of the explosion.
Give your answer in km/s with one significant figure.
Chapter 12 Solutions
The Cosmic Perspective (9th Edition)
Ch. 12 - Prob. 1VSCCh. 12 - Use the following questions to check your...Ch. 12 - Use the following questions to check your...Ch. 12 - Prob. 4VSCCh. 12 - Use the following questions to check your...Ch. 12 - 1. Briefly define asteroid. comet, dwarf planet,...Ch. 12 - Briefly describe asteroid sizes, shapes, masses,...Ch. 12 - 3. Distinguish between primitive meteorites and...Ch. 12 - 4. What do meteorites and spacecraft observations...Ch. 12 - Prob. 5EAP
Ch. 12 - Prob. 6EAPCh. 12 - Prob. 7EAPCh. 12 - How do we know the Kuiper belt and Oort cloud...Ch. 12 - Prob. 9EAPCh. 12 - Prob. 10EAPCh. 12 - Prob. 11EAPCh. 12 - Briefly describe the evidence suggesting that an...Ch. 12 - Prob. 13EAPCh. 12 - Prob. 14EAPCh. 12 - Prob. 15EAPCh. 12 - Prob. 16EAPCh. 12 - Prob. 17EAPCh. 12 - Prob. 18EAPCh. 12 - Prob. 19EAPCh. 12 - Prob. 20EAPCh. 12 - Prob. 21EAPCh. 12 - Prob. 22EAPCh. 12 - Prob. 23EAPCh. 12 - Prob. 24EAPCh. 12 - Choose the best answer to each of the following....Ch. 12 - Choose the best answer to each of the following....Ch. 12 - Choose the best answer to each of the following....Ch. 12 - Choose the best answer to each of the following....Ch. 12 - Choose the best answer to each of the following....Ch. 12 - Choose the best answer to each of the following....Ch. 12 - Choose the best answer to each of the following....Ch. 12 - Choose the best answer to each of the following....Ch. 12 - Choose the best answer to each of the following....Ch. 12 - Choose the best answer to each of the following....Ch. 12 - The Role of Jupiter. Suppose that Jupiter had...Ch. 12 - Prob. 41EAPCh. 12 - Prob. 42EAPCh. 12 - Comet Tails. Describe in your own words why comets...Ch. 12 - Prob. 44EAPCh. 12 - Adding Up Asteroids. It’s estimated that there are...Ch. 12 - Impact Energies. A relatively small impact crater...Ch. 12 - The “Near Miss” of Toutatis. The 5-kilometer...Ch. 12 - Prob. 50EAPCh. 12 - Comet Temperatures. Find the “no greenhouse”...Ch. 12 - Comet Dust Accumulation. A few hundred tons of...
Knowledge Booster
Learn more about
Need a deep-dive on the concept behind this application? Look no further. Learn more about this topic, physics and related others by exploring similar questions and additional content below.Similar questions
- How many impacts would you expect to strike a 100m2 region in one hour during Earth’s formation, assuming that Earth grew to its present size in 10 million years from particles averaging 100 grams each? (Hint: Assume that Earth had its current radius of 6378km.) (Notes: The surface area of a sphere is 4pir2 ; 1yr=3.2x107 .) a. About 1300. b. About 13 . c. About 13,000. d. About 130arrow_forwardMission to Titan: Titan is the largest of Saturn’s moons and the only moon in the Solar System that possesses a dense atmosphere and large liquid bodies (seas or lakes) at its surface. For these and other reasons, many exobiologists think that Titan is the most likely place in the Solar System beside Earth where life might exist. NASA is considering sending a 600 kg space probe into orbit around Titan in order to map its surface. This would be followed a few years later by a 320 kg robotic lander that would land on the surface of Titan in order to look for life. a) What would be the space probe’s velocity and orbital period if the probe were to orbit at an altitude of 70 km above the surface of Titan? b) What force would the lander’s thrusters need to produce in order to allow the lander to hover just above the surface of Titan.arrow_forwardYou decide to go on an interstellar mission to explore some of the newly discovered extrasolar planets orbiting the star ROTOR. Your spacecraft arrives in the new system, in which there are five planets. ROTOR is identical to the Sun (in terms of its size, mass, age and composition). From your observations of these planets, you collect the following data: Density Average Distance from star (AU] Planet Mass Radius Albedo Temp. [C] Surf. Press. MOI Rotation [Earth = 1] (Earth = 1] [g/cm³] [Atm.] Period (Hours] Factor SIEVER EUGENIA 4.0 0.001 2.0 0.1 5.0 1.0 0.3 20 0.8 N/A 3.0 0.2 N/A 0.3 0.4 0.35 20 10 500 1000 5.0 4.0 0.5 0.8 0.4 0.7 -50 MARLENE CRILE 1.0 1.0 3.0 8.0 1,5 0.0 0.50 0.50 0.25 150 0.4 JANUS 100 12 0.1 10 -80 0.2 200 Figure 1: А Rotor 850 890 900 Wavelength (nm) A Sun В C 860 900 910 Wavelength (nm) 2414 a asarrow_forward
- The gravity on Mars is about 38% that of Earth's gravity. Let's say some cargo has a mass of 15 kg here on Earth. First, what would be the weight of that cargo in kilograms on Mars? Explain your answer. Second, what would be the mass of that cargo in kilograms on Mars? Explain your answer.arrow_forwardThere is strong evidence that Europa, a satellite of Jupiter, has a liquid ocean beneath its icy surface. Many scientists think we should land a vehicle there to search for life. Before launching it, we would want to test such a lander under the gravity conditions at the surface of Europa. One way to do this is to put the lander at the end of a rotating arm in an orbiting earth satellite.arrow_forwardA lot of asteroid and comet dust collides with Earth's atmosphere everyday. Assume that 500 tons of mass is added to Earth daily from the millions of meteors that enter our atmosphere. Estimate the time it would take for the Earth's mass to increase 0.2% with this impact rate. Is this mass accumulation significant to Earth as a planet.arrow_forward
- Prompt: You are on the Sensor and Data Acquisition engineering team for the new NASA space rover program: the Unmanned Mobile Assessment Drone for Basic Reconnaissance and Observation. Your team is working with a very low budget, and have been given a hand-me-down drone which was repurposed from an old Mars mission. The drone has already landed successfully on Saturn. It’s first task was to travel 4.6 m to a rock and then use it’s built in drill to take a sample. Unfortunately, it appears that the drone stopped very short, only traveling 1.32 m instead of the 4.6 m. Everything about the ultrasonic distance sensor that the drone uses to move with seems to be operating correctly. When you requested details from the drone, it said that the time it took for the 40 kHz ultrasonic sound wave to travel to the rock and back was 0.0108 seconds. Why did the drone only travel 1.32 m, given the 0.0108s echo time?arrow_forwardPlease answer the question and subquestions completely! This is one whole question which has subquestions! According to the official Bartleby guidelines, each question can have up to two subquestions! Thank you! 1) A missile is launched upward with a speed that is half the escape speed. What height (in radii of Earth) will it reach? R/4 R/3 R/2 R 2R A) The weight of a 0.60 kg object at the surface of Planet V is 20 N. The radius of the planet is 4 x 10 6 m. Find the gravitational acceleration at a distance of 2 x 10 6 m from the surface of this planet. 8.9 m/s2 11 m/s2 13 m/s2 18 m/s2 B) Two masses are precisely 1 m apart from each other. The gravitational force each exerts on the other is exactly 1 N. If the masses are identical, what is each mass? 1.22 x 105 kg 1.34 x 1010 kg 2.50 x 105 kg 1.58 x 1010 kgarrow_forwardYou are a rover pilot on the crew of the initial exploration team sent to Kepler 22b,the first extrasolar planet discovered within the habitable zone of a sun-like star. Thescience team recently discovered liquid water on the surface. (Hurrah!) Your rover isat point A on the shore of a circular lake with radius 4 km collecting samples. Thescience team wants to send your rover to a point C diametrically opposite A. Therover can drive around the circumference of the lake at a rate of 4 km per hour andfly over the lake at a rate of 3 km per hour.(a) How long will it take the rover to fly across the lake?(b) How long will it take the rover to drive around the shore of the lake?You could also fly at an angle θ along a chord inside the circular lake, andcomplete the rest of the path driving along the circumference of the lake.(c) Find the length of the chord in terms of θ. How long will it take the drone totraverse the chord?(d) Find the length of the remaining shoreline after the cord in…arrow_forward
- We think the terrestrial planets formed around solid “seeds” that later grew over time through the accretion of rocks and metals. a) Suppose the Earth grew to its present size in 1 million years through the accretion of particles averaging 100 grams each. On average, how many particles did the Earth capture per second, given that the mass of the Earth is = 5.972 × 10 ^24 kg ? b) If you stood on Earth during its formation and watched a region covering 100 m^2, how many impacts would you expect to see in one hour. Use the impact rate you calculated in part a. You’ll need the following as well: the radius of the Earth is = 6.371 × 10 ^6 m and the surface area of the Earth is 4??^2Eartharrow_forwardThe asteroid Hygiea has a mass of 8.67 x 1019 kg and an average radius of about 216 km (2.16 x 102 km). What is its escape velocity (in m/s)? (Hints: Use the formula for escape velocity, 2GM ; remember to convert units to m, kg, and s.) r e m/s Could you jump off the asteroid? Yes No Need Help? Read It Submit Answerarrow_forward+1x cture.com/courses/71876/quizzes/249540/take A Polynomial Operations A comet is cruising through the solar system at a velocity of 50,000 km per hour for four hours. What is the total distance traveled by the comet? Do not enter your units for this problem. Just enter your numerical answer. Make sure to include commas if necessary. 甲 直arrow_forward
arrow_back_ios
SEE MORE QUESTIONS
arrow_forward_ios
Kepler's Three Laws Explained; Author: PhysicsHigh;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyR6EO_RMKE;License: Standard YouTube License, CC-BY