Asteroid Castalia Impact Simulation

Visualizations by Shigeru Suzuki Released on January 21, 1999

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.

Video slate image reads, "Asteroid Castalia Impact Simulation
This visualization shows Castalia being hit by a house-sized rock traveling at 5 km per second (11,000 miles per hour). Fractures appear throughout the asteroid, with the greatest damage shown in red. The scattering white dots are fragments from the smaller rock. The simulation shows that such an impact will fracture a solid asteroid, but, later, gravity will reassemble the pieces."

Visualization Credits

Shigeru Suzuki (NASA): Lead Animator
Eric DeJong (NASA/JPL CalTech): Animator
Erik Asphaug (University of California, Santa Cruz): Scientist
Steven Ostro (NASA/JPL CalTech): Scientist
Scott Hudson (Washington State University): Scientist
Willy Benz (University of Bern): Scientist
Daniel Scheeres (Iowa State University): Scientist

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory

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https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/558

This item is part of this series:
Images of Earth and Space

Keywords:
SVS >> Asteroid
SVS >> Castalia
DLESE >> Space science
NASA Science >> Planets and Moons