Science Scene - Meteor Impact Simulation

Click Here to have Purdue University calculate the impacts of a meteor based on your inputs.

Asteroids and comets come in all shapes and sizes—from small pebbles, to larger SUV-sized fragments, to massive asteroids like Ceres, which has a diameter of about 621 miles (shown in picture). Much of the asteroid material that crosses paths with the Earth burns up when it enters the atmosphere. About once every 100 years, though, a fairly large asteroid strikes the Earth.

But how big does an asteroid need to be to cause major destruction? The new “Impact: Earth!”asteroid impact effects calculator will help you find out. The interactive web tool, developed by a Purdue University research team led by Jay Melosh, allows anyone to calculate the potential damage caused by a comet or asteroid striking the Earth. Users input information into several parameter fields, such as the diameter and density of the object, its angle of entry, and the location where it will hit. The calculator then estimates the impact consequences, providing information about debris distribution, ground shaking, size of the resulting crater, and whether a tsunami will be generated.

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Science Scene - Google Earth & CO2 Emissions

Very interesting concept, and it allows you to install Google Earth, which is awesome :o)


Boilermappers: Purdue Researchers Put Emissions on Google Earth
Posted by Keith Johnson

Google Earth let millions of people waste time at work zooming around the globe; Google Oceans promises the same for virtual scuba buffs and amateur oceanographers. Now, Google Earth will give people a graphic look at just where greenhouse-gas emissions come from.
Researchers at Purdue University just added project Vulcan—originally designed for the scientific community—to Google Earth. Vulcan uses EPA data to track U.S. emissions from cars, buildings, factories, and power plants.

The Vulcan add-on for Google Earth apparently addresses the need to bring climate science to Main Street. “This will bring emissions information into everyone’s living room as a recognizable, accessible online experience,” said Kevin Gurney, head of the project and an assistant professor of earth and atmospheric sciences at Purdue.

The first iteration of Vulcan on Google Earth uses old emissions data—from 2002—but the team hopes to update it with more recent information. After expanding the map to Mexico and Canada, the next step is to step-up the level of detail, so that emissions from individual streets and even buildings are visible on Google Earth, the developers said.

It’s all part of the Google Earth enviro-frenzy. The folks at the World Bank’s Global Gas Flaring Reduction project are also putting satellite data onto Google Earth, to let people see where natural gas is burned off into the atmosphere, releasing many zephyrs full of global warming gases into the atmosphere.