A Near Miss! In the early morning hours of June 14, 2002, the Earth had a remarkably close encounter with an asteroid the size of a small city. The previously unknown asteroid, now designated 2002 MN, remained undetected until three days after it had passed the Earth. At its closest approach, the asteroid was 73,600 miles from the center of the Earth—about a third of the distance to the Moon. (a) Find the speed of the asteroid at closest approach, assuming its speed at infinite distance to be zero and considering only its interaction with the Earth. (b) Observations indicate the asteroid to have a diameter of about 0.730 km. Estimate the kinetic energy of the asteroid at closest approach, assuming it has an average density of 3.33 g/cm 3 . (For comparison, a 1-megaton nuclear weapon releases about 4.2 × 10 15 J of energy.)
A Near Miss! In the early morning hours of June 14, 2002, the Earth had a remarkably close encounter with an asteroid the size of a small city. The previously unknown asteroid, now designated 2002 MN, remained undetected until three days after it had passed the Earth. At its closest approach, the asteroid was 73,600 miles from the center of the Earth—about a third of the distance to the Moon. (a) Find the speed of the asteroid at closest approach, assuming its speed at infinite distance to be zero and considering only its interaction with the Earth. (b) Observations indicate the asteroid to have a diameter of about 0.730 km. Estimate the kinetic energy of the asteroid at closest approach, assuming it has an average density of 3.33 g/cm 3 . (For comparison, a 1-megaton nuclear weapon releases about 4.2 × 10 15 J of energy.)
A Near Miss! In the early morning hours of June 14, 2002, the Earth had a remarkably close encounter with an asteroid the size of a small city. The previously unknown asteroid, now designated 2002 MN, remained undetected until three days after it had passed the Earth. At its closest approach, the asteroid was 73,600 miles from the center of the Earth—about a third of the distance to the Moon. (a) Find the speed of the asteroid at closest approach, assuming its speed at infinite distance to be zero and considering only its interaction with the Earth. (b) Observations indicate the asteroid to have a diameter of about 0.730 km. Estimate the kinetic energy of the asteroid at closest approach, assuming it has an average density of 3.33 g/cm3. (For comparison, a 1-megaton nuclear weapon releases about 4.2 × 1015 J of energy.)
Astronomers predict that on Friday 13 April 2029 the asteroid 99942 Apophis is going to pass within 30,000 km of the Earth. Given the fact that, on average, the Moon is 385,000 km distant from the Earth, this asteroid is going to pass pretty darn close. 99942 Apophis has a mass of 2.7*10^10 kg and is expected to be traveling at a speed of 12.6 km/s relative to the Earth at the time of closest approach. What if astronomers goofed in their calculations and the asteroid is actually going to hit the Earth?
With what kinetic energy would 99942 Apophis impact the Earth in terms of megatons of TNT?
A detonation of 1 megaton of TNT releases 4.2 * 10^15 Joules of energy.
If the mass and radius of Mars are 6.39 × 1023 kg and 3.4 × 106 m, respectively, what is the escape velocity needed for a spaceship of mass 25,000 kg to escape the gravitational potential well of Mars?
A) 1,200 m/s
B). 8,658 m/s
C). 7,270 m/s
D). 5,022 m/s
A spaceship with m = 1.00 ✕ 104 kg is in a circular orbit around the Earth, h = 800 km above its surface. The ship's captain fires the engines in a direction tangent to the orbit, and the spaceship assumes an elliptical orbit around the Earth with an apogee of d = 3.00 ✕ 104 km, measured from the Earth's center. How much energy (in J) must be used from the fuel to achieve this orbit? (Assume that all the fuel energy goes into increasing the orbital energy and that the perigee distance is equal to the initial radius.)
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.