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Asteroid Castalia Impact Simulation
This visualization shows Castalia, a larger-than-average asteroid, being hit by a house-sized rock traveling at 5 kilometers per second. Lasting merely a second, the collision approximates the force of the Hiroshima atomic bomb. Using nuclear weapons has been proposed for breaking up, or at least diverting, asteroids headed towards Earth. Simulations show that such an impact will fracture a solid asteroid, but, later, gravity will reassemble the pieces.

A cut-away view of the asteroid Castalia as it is impacted by a house-sized rock traveling at 5 kilometers per second. The scattering white dots are fragments from the smaller rock.    A cut-away view of the asteroid Castalia as it is impacted by a house-sized rock traveling at 5 kilometers per second. The scattering white dots are fragments from the smaller rock.
Duration: 55.0 seconds
Available formats:
  352x240 (29.97 fps) MPEG-1   7 MB
  160x80       PNG           8 KB
  80x40         PNG           3 KB
  320x238     JPEG         3 KB
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Animation Number:558
Completed:1999-01-21
Animators:Shigeru Suzuki (NASA) (Lead)
 Eric DeJong (NASA/JPL CalTech)
Scientists:Erik Asphaug (University of California, Santa Cruz)
 Steven Ostro (NASA/JPL CalTech)
 Scott Hudson (Washington State University)
 Willy Benz (University of Bern)
 Daniel Scheeres (Iowa State University)
Series:Images of Earth and Space
Video:SVS1999-0001 *
Keywords:
SVS >> Asteroid
SVS >> Castalia
DLESE >> Space science
 
 
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory


*Please note: the SVS does not fulfill requests for copies of the tapes in our library. On some of our animation pages, there is a direct link to a video distribution service from which tapes, handled by the Public Affairs Office (PAO)/Goddard TV, including some of our animations may be ordered. General information on this service can be found here.


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