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Article #245Re: Swift-Tuttle Comet a threat to earth?
From: Gerald Cecil
Date: Tue, 03 Nov 1992 13:58
Date: Tue, 03 Nov 1992 13:58
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The need to emplace a transponder on Swift-Tuttle should finally provide the motivation/lead time to build a viable, deep space ion drive! This is just the sort of thing you could give to the weapons establishment to tinker with. They may have other things to do: Today's NY Times quotes Dr. J. Solem, physicist at Los Alamos, who suggests (no details) that 10-100 Megatons would be needed to impulsively deflect Swift-Tuttle out just beyond Saturn's orbit in 2122 (T -4 yrs). This is a realistic detection limit assuming no large-aperture space or lunar telescopes. Another opportunity would come ~15 days before closest approach, when he claims that you'd need 1-10 Gigatons. The largest nuclear detonation is estimated to have been 60 Megatons. --- Gerald Cecil cecil@wrath.physics.unc.edu 919-962-7169 Physics & Astronomy, U of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3255 USA
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Newsgroups: sci.space Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!concert!samba!wrath!cecil From: cecil@physics.unc.edu (Gerald Cecil) Subject: Re: Swift-Tuttle Comet a threat to earth? Message-ID: <1992Nov3.135847.23225@samba.oit.unc.edu> Sender: usenet@samba.oit.unc.edu Nntp-Posting-Host: wrath.physics.unc.edu Reply-To: cecil@physics.unc.edu Organization: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. References: <17956@ksr.com> Date: Tue, 3 Nov 1992 13:58:47 GMT Lines: 16