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Article #75Re: Smith-Tuttle Comet a threat to earth?
From: Ed Russell
Date: Wed, 28 Oct 1992 17:02
Date: Wed, 28 Oct 1992 17:02
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> the risk of encounter is 1e-6 The probability of impact must be calculated with respect to the uncertainty in the orbit of the comet due to the astrometrics and the action of non-gravitational forces. This comet is a particular comet on a particular path - not a hypothetical comet on a hypothetical path. To determine the probability of impact during a given time period simply integrate the density of the distribution of the error in the location of the comet over the cross section of the Earth's orbit over the time period in question. It will vary depending on the expected distance that the comet is from Earth during that time period - and thus is not a constant over equal time periods. For instance the apparent risk of an impact by S-T today is much lower (nil) than it will be on Aug 14, 2116 given our present state of knowledge of the S-T orbit. ====================================================================== Ed Russell
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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!charon.amdahl.com!amdahl!amdcad!dvorak.amd.com!erussell From: erussell@dvorak.amd.com (Ed Russell) Newsgroups: sci.space Subject: Re: Smith-Tuttle Comet a threat to earth? Keywords: Swift-Tuttle Comet Message-ID: <1992Oct28.170220.366@dvorak.amd.com> Date: 28 Oct 92 17:02:20 GMT References: <YAMAUCHI.92Oct26235611@yuggoth.ces.cwru.edu> <STEINLY.92Oct27103531@topaz.ucsc.edu> <BwstxI.IL3.1@cs.cmu.edu> Organization: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.; Austin, Texas Lines: 22