Starship Asterisk*

Can anyone tell me the size of the meteor that caused the Tycho crater on the moon and what would be the result if one of similar size struck the earth in a populated area?

polevaulter1976 wrote:Can anyone tell me the size of the meteor that caused the Tycho crater on the moon and what would be the result if one of similar size struck the earth in a populated area?

Wiki speaks to that event briefly but I suspect there is much more discussion regarding Tycho on old LPOD's and their references to lunar topography.

polevaulter1976 wrote:Can anyone tell me the size of the meteor that caused the Tycho crater on the moon and what would be the result if one of similar size struck the earth in a populated area?

Probably of similar size to the Chicxulub impactor that finished off the dinosaurs (7-10 km). So we already have a pretty good idea of the effect of such an impact on Earth (and it wouldn't really make any difference if it centered on a populated area or not).

Chris Peterson wrote:

polevaulter1976 wrote:
Can anyone tell me the size of the meteor that caused the Tycho crater on the moon and what would be the result if one of similar size struck the earth in a populated area?

Probably of similar size to the Chicxulub impactor that finished off the dinosaurs (7-10 km).

The Chicxulub crater is 180km wide vs. the Tycho crater's 86km diameter; so, even taking into account the fact that the Earth's gravity enhanced the speed of the Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–T) impactor it was still probably about twice the size of the Tycho impactor.

neufer wrote:

Chris Peterson wrote:

polevaulter1976 wrote:
Can anyone tell me the size of the meteor that caused the Tycho crater on the moon and what would be the result if one of similar size struck the earth in a populated area?

Probably of similar size to the Chicxulub impactor that finished off the dinosaurs (7-10 km).

The Chicxulub crater is 180km wide vs. the Tycho crater's 86km diameter; so, even taking into account the fact that the Earth's gravity enhanced the speed of the Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–T) impactor it was still probably about twice the size of the Tycho impactor.

Hard to say without actually knowing the impact speed. But given the Moon's much lower escape velocity, the impact energy could easily be an order of magnitude lower on the Moon than it would on the Earth. Most analyses I've seen still place the Tycho impactor on the order of 10 km.

I just hope you guys aren't doing someone's homework assignment.

geckzilla wrote:
I just hope you guys aren't doing someone's homework assignment.

I just hope he doesn't fail for listening to us.

neufer wrote:

geckzilla wrote:
I just hope you guys aren't doing someone's homework assignment.

I just hope he doesn't fail for listening to us.

What? You can still fail?

Referring to Polevulter1976, note the year......1976. He is 58. Thanks for the answers.