5 ms·

I remember those waves on interstellar being a scarier adversary than Pennywise from IT. It must have been quite a sight. I wonder if any of the creatures from

by brink 4y ago

I remember those waves on interstellar being a scarier adversary than Pennywise from IT. It must have been quite a sight. I wonder if any of the creatures from the event felt fear before the water washed over them.

GalenErso 4y ago
I have long said that if I was given the chance to go back in time just once, and come back, I would return 66 million years ago to witness the meteor impact from the safety of a space shuttle. And now I have an idea for Elon Musk: interplanetary disaster tourism. Purposefully crash asteroids on remote areas of Mars and charge for front row seats. This would have the added benefit of bringing valuable metal ores to be harvested close to the demand source.
- g0ran 4y ago
  > I would return 66 million years ago to witness the meteor impact from the safety of a space shuttle. Don't know how safe you would be. If I remember correctly, there's a theory saying that impact ejecta even shot out into space. Crazy.
- pr337h4m 4y ago
  These would make amazing VR experiences
  - raverbashing 4y ago
    Hummmm VR tourism on Mars, that reminds me of something... But it might not be a great idea if the VR is too realistic /s
  - fishtacos 4y ago
    My most memorable VR experiences were a jellyfish/turtle scene and a closeup of a whale, among several games and apps I tried with my headset some years ago. Games were fun enough, some good, some not. The visual, non-interactive experience gave me a true sense of awe, as if I were transposed into another reality briefly. Not a big fan of the whole "meta" idea, but executed and refined properly, we'll be in the matrix soon enough. Glad I won't be participating :)
    - arlcode 4y ago
      "The Blue" was indeed amazing. Back then, I showed it to visitors at work (besides real projects) and it never failed to impress.
- jl6 4y ago
  I think with simulation work like the OP, and Hollywood CGI, we could produce a better virtual view of the event than you could get from any safe distance.
  - random314 4y ago
    There is indeed a VR simulation available for the asteroid impact.
- Tepix 4y ago
  To terraform mars we'd need 3500 nukes per day for 7 weeks. That would be quite a show!
  - nunobrito 4y ago
    but... why..?!
    - Tepix 4y ago
      Always nice to have a second habitable planet.
      - antisthenes 4y ago
        Nuking it wouldn't make it any more habitable. At best you'd make the surface slightly warmer and maybe melt some leftover CO2 on the poles. To actually terraform it to anything resembling even an Earth desert, you'd need incomprehensible amounts of energy.
        Tepix 4y ago
        I don't expect it to work either. But there is probably enough water. Maybe not other stuff.
- m_mueller 4y ago
  LEO may not even be safe, would it? Afaik a large part of the damage was the heating of the atmosphere from enormous amounts of secondary impacts due to the debris - many of these small rocks probably flung up into LEO, though it would be interesting to know how risky a stay in LEO would be during such an impact. If you want a SciFi story touching many such topics I highly recommend "Seveneves" by Neal Stephenson.
  - perihelions 4y ago
    Parameters for 300 km range (200 km STS altitude + downrange) https://impact.ese.ic.ac.uk/ImpactEarth/cgi-bin/crater.cgi?dist=300&distanceUnits=1&diam=17500&diameterUnits=1&pdens=2700&pdens_select=0&vel=20&velocityUnits=1&theta=45&tdens=1000&wdepth=100&wdepthUnits=1 https://impact.ese.ic.ac.uk/ImpactEarth/cgi-bin/crater.cgi?d... Thermal Radiation: Time for maximum radiation: 11.5 seconds after impact Visible fireball radius: 223 km ( = 138 miles ) The fireball appears 169 times larger than the sun Thermal Exposure: 7.72 x 10^9 Joules/m^2 Duration of Irradiation: 49.7 minutes Radiant flux (relative to the sun): 2590 (The physics aren't the same, but just for the sake of comparison: Chicxulub's 4e8 megatons-TNT of energy, at 300 km, is 1/r^2 equivalent to a 4 megaton nuke, at 30 meters).
    - dsfyu404ed 4y ago
      >(The physics aren't the same, but just for the sake of comparison: Chicxulub's 4e8 megatons-TNT of energy, at 300 km, is 1/r^2 equivalent to a 4 megaton nuke, at 30 meters). Altitude 300mi is not the same as linear distance to blast 300mi At 300mi up you could be over a different continent and get a good view and you would probably want to be so that you get a better view from the side.
  - Someone 4y ago
    It would help that Mars has a less dense atmosphere than earth (about 1%), so there’s less stuff to heat. On the other hand ejected material would face less resistance from the atmosphere and thus reach larger heights (even ignoring Mars’ lower gravity)

by brink 4y ago

GalenErso 4y ago

I have long said that if I was given the chance to go back in time just once, and come back, I would return 66 million years ago to witness the meteor impact from the safety of a space shuttle. And now I have an idea for Elon Musk: interplanetary disaster tourism. Purposefully crash asteroids on remote areas of Mars and charge for front row seats. This would have the added benefit of bringing valuable metal ores to be harvested close to the demand source.

g0ran 4y ago
> I would return 66 million years ago to witness the meteor impact from the safety of a space shuttle. Don't know how safe you would be. If I remember correctly, there's a theory saying that impact ejecta even shot out into space. Crazy.
pr337h4m 4y ago
These would make amazing VR experiences
- raverbashing 4y ago
  Hummmm VR tourism on Mars, that reminds me of something... But it might not be a great idea if the VR is too realistic /s
- fishtacos 4y ago
  My most memorable VR experiences were a jellyfish/turtle scene and a closeup of a whale, among several games and apps I tried with my headset some years ago. Games were fun enough, some good, some not. The visual, non-interactive experience gave me a true sense of awe, as if I were transposed into another reality briefly. Not a big fan of the whole "meta" idea, but executed and refined properly, we'll be in the matrix soon enough. Glad I won't be participating :)
  - arlcode 4y ago
    "The Blue" was indeed amazing. Back then, I showed it to visitors at work (besides real projects) and it never failed to impress.
jl6 4y ago
I think with simulation work like the OP, and Hollywood CGI, we could produce a better virtual view of the event than you could get from any safe distance.
- random314 4y ago
  There is indeed a VR simulation available for the asteroid impact.
Tepix 4y ago
To terraform mars we'd need 3500 nukes per day for 7 weeks. That would be quite a show!
- nunobrito 4y ago
  but... why..?!
  - Tepix 4y ago
    Always nice to have a second habitable planet.
    - antisthenes 4y ago
      Nuking it wouldn't make it any more habitable. At best you'd make the surface slightly warmer and maybe melt some leftover CO2 on the poles. To actually terraform it to anything resembling even an Earth desert, you'd need incomprehensible amounts of energy.
      - Tepix 4y ago
        I don't expect it to work either. But there is probably enough water. Maybe not other stuff.
m_mueller 4y ago
LEO may not even be safe, would it? Afaik a large part of the damage was the heating of the atmosphere from enormous amounts of secondary impacts due to the debris - many of these small rocks probably flung up into LEO, though it would be interesting to know how risky a stay in LEO would be during such an impact. If you want a SciFi story touching many such topics I highly recommend "Seveneves" by Neal Stephenson.
- perihelions 4y ago
  Parameters for 300 km range (200 km STS altitude + downrange) https://impact.ese.ic.ac.uk/ImpactEarth/cgi-bin/crater.cgi?dist=300&distanceUnits=1&diam=17500&diameterUnits=1&pdens=2700&pdens_select=0&vel=20&velocityUnits=1&theta=45&tdens=1000&wdepth=100&wdepthUnits=1 https://impact.ese.ic.ac.uk/ImpactEarth/cgi-bin/crater.cgi?d... Thermal Radiation: Time for maximum radiation: 11.5 seconds after impact Visible fireball radius: 223 km ( = 138 miles ) The fireball appears 169 times larger than the sun Thermal Exposure: 7.72 x 10^9 Joules/m^2 Duration of Irradiation: 49.7 minutes Radiant flux (relative to the sun): 2590 (The physics aren't the same, but just for the sake of comparison: Chicxulub's 4e8 megatons-TNT of energy, at 300 km, is 1/r^2 equivalent to a 4 megaton nuke, at 30 meters).
  - dsfyu404ed 4y ago
    >(The physics aren't the same, but just for the sake of comparison: Chicxulub's 4e8 megatons-TNT of energy, at 300 km, is 1/r^2 equivalent to a 4 megaton nuke, at 30 meters). Altitude 300mi is not the same as linear distance to blast 300mi At 300mi up you could be over a different continent and get a good view and you would probably want to be so that you get a better view from the side.
- Someone 4y ago
  It would help that Mars has a less dense atmosphere than earth (about 1%), so there’s less stuff to heat. On the other hand ejected material would face less resistance from the atmosphere and thus reach larger heights (even ignoring Mars’ lower gravity)