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In The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (1966) by Robert A. Heinlein, the lunar colonists repurpose a mass driver to launch large rocks at Earth as kinetic bombardment weapons. These projectiles rely solely on impact energy and are used as a form of asymmetric warfare against Earth's superior forces.
When large objects impact terrestrial planets such as the Earth, there can be significant physical and biospheric consequences, as the impacting body is usually traveling at several kilometres a second (a minimum of 11.2 km/s (7.0 mi/s) for an Earth impacting body [2]), though atmospheres mitigate many surface impacts through atmospheric entry.
These features were caused by the collision of meteors (consisting of large fragments of asteroids) or comets (consisting of ice, dust particles and rocky fragments) with the Earth. For eroded or buried craters, the stated diameter typically refers to the best available estimate of the original rim diameter, and may not correspond to present ...
Likewise, bodies with higher resurfacing rates, such as Io, also do not record surface cratering. [2] Cartoon strip of the formation of impact craters and, subsequently, secondary craters. From left to right, shows the timeline of a mass impacting a body, ejecta propagating from the initial impact, shock wave motion and the resulting cratered ...
The concept of terminal ballistics can be applied to any projectile striking a target. [2] Much of the topic specifically regards the effects of small arms fire striking live targets, and a projectile's ability to incapacitate or eliminate a target. Common factors include bullet mass, composition, velocity, and shape.
The European Space Agency in January placed the asteroid's odds of hitting Earth at roughly 1%, before NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory estimated the risk was more like 1.6% at the tail end of the ...
Asteroid 2024 YR4 has been a source of alarm because it carries an uncommonly high risk of colliding into Earth – an event that would be catastrophic, even if it wouldn't cause a mass extinction.
In mechanics, an impact is when two bodies collide. During this collision, both bodies decelerate. The deceleration causes a high force or shock, applied over a short time period. A high force, over a short duration, usually causes more damage to both bodies than a lower force applied over a proportionally longer duration.