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To: Scully
Scully,
Thanks for the ping... (and for taking weekend duty - from RadioAstronomer)

Two things I find interesting:

1. The orbital patterns of the small asteroids around the larger will allow a more precise measurement of the mass of the central body. Kepler's third law is used this way for binary stars and galaxies orbiting larger galaxies. The size estimates (and a density of ~5) give of 1.4 x 10^11 metric tons for the larger and 2.2 x 10^8 metric tons for the smaller. So we could work out a typical orbit...

2. The multiple impact craters (in proximity) on Earth are a real eye-opener. I saw Shoemaker-Lever hit Jupiter in 26+- pieces (NASA photos)... and just imagine a binary asteroid system hitting Earth.

13 posted on 04/13/2002 12:25:03 PM PDT by edwin hubble
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To: edwin hubble
"2. The multiple impact craters (in proximity) on Earth are a real eye-opener. I saw Shoemaker-Lever hit Jupiter in 26+- pieces (NASA photos)... and just imagine a binary asteroid system hitting Earth."

The plumes from the Shoemaker-Levy impacts extended (to everyones suprise) 2,000 miles back into space.

14 posted on 04/13/2002 3:51:45 PM PDT by blam
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