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Author Topic: Using US2 to Calculate IRL Asteroids?  (Read 1980 times)

Thunder Ice

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Using US2 to Calculate IRL Asteroids?
« on: December 11, 2014, 01:11:39 PM »
This thought came up in my head yesterday. I recently viewed a post discovering an asteroid that orbits Earth every 3 years.

Then I had another thought. What if we found an asteroid, and we were so afraid that it was going to hit us at one point? Could we actually use US2 as a "map" of sorts to recreate the current area between Earth [or nearby worlds] and the asteroid, observe its real life movement, and plant that data into the simulator to calculate a miss or direct hit?

Would it even be accurate?

Let's say 2014 UR116 DID pose a threat to Earth [confirmed no threat], and we wanted to calculate its trajectory over the next few years, or even decades. And let's say, for example, it was to strike Earth in 2030, July 23rd [don't believe this]. Could that data from US2 be legit or just phooey?

If not legit, on the bright side, it could be useful in disaster films. :D

crashman1390

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Re: Using US2 to Calculate IRL Asteroids?
« Reply #1 on: December 11, 2014, 04:34:13 PM »
Do keep in mind that some or most NEO's (that I am aware of) that have been documented had not been mapped, so making 'realistic' representations of these objects can prove difficult.

Also, due to the numerical integrator 's that are being used, they currently are not completely accurate, so 'predicting' a collision would be again, difficult.

Keep in mind that I do quite like this idea, but the current integrator's in play won't completely correspond with your idea, that being said, the Dev's are working on adding more accurate integrator's to the game, so sooner or later your idea might become a reality :).

Greenleaf

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Re: Using US2 to Calculate IRL Asteroids?
« Reply #2 on: December 12, 2014, 12:00:09 AM »
Do keep in mind that some or most NEO's (that I am aware of) that have been documented had not been mapped, so making 'realistic' representations of these objects can prove difficult.

Also, due to the numerical integrator 's that are being used, they currently are not completely accurate, so 'predicting' a collision would be again, difficult.

Keep in mind that I do quite like this idea, but the current integrator's in play won't completely correspond with your idea, that being said, the Dev's are working on adding more accurate integrator's to the game, so sooner or later your idea might become a reality :) .


The integrators currently included are rather accurate actually. RungeKuttaFeldberg as well as Forrest Ruth and PEFRL are all up to the task. The issue with accuracy only really comes up in relation to simulation speed. If you use default accuracy and crank the time step up a bit, it will be less accurate than if you increase the accuracy value and relax the time step.