Re: Sci-Fi movie "Impact"

Mark Nobles wrote:
> PV <pv+usenet@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
>> "Mac Breck" <macthevorlon@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> writes:
>>> No, the name of the game there would be gravity.  Just imagine those
>>> gravitational forces at the distance the moon is from the earth.
>>
>> If a brown dwarf came sailing through the solar system, there
>> wouldn't be a solar system anymore, at least in this configuration.
>> An encounter between earth and one at the distance of the moon would
>> (not doing the math here) probably eject us from the solar system,
>> after cracking the planet apart. *
>
> You can't do the math to get a meaningful answer. It would depend on
> the angles and velocity of the approach.

Exactly.  It could have anything from immediate, disastrous effects to
almost no effect at all.  If it came in at a high enough velocity,
perpendicular to the plane of our solar system and passed through an
area where there were no nearby planets, there shouldn't be much of an
effect at all (perhaps some minor orbit eccentricities).

-- 
Mac Breck (KoshN)
-------------------------------
"The Dresden Files" (2007)
Harry Dresden: [re. Bianca] What is it about bad girls?  They lie,
cheat, won't suck your blood even when you beg them to, and for some
reason, no matter how badly they treat us, we still can't walk away.