The end of your world...or time for lunch?

Scientists have come up with a computer program which lets you find out if an asteroid hurtling towards the Earth is heading in your direction.

The Earth Impact Effects Program will reveal whether you should jump in the car and drive for your life or relax and finish your lunch.

It will calculate the crater size, the energy released by the impact, and the effect on the surrounding area.

The program can be found at the Arizona State University website . Users are asked to type in their distance from the predicted target zone, size and composition of the object, and information such as impact velocity and angle.

Asteroids can be nearly a thousand kilometres in diameter and lie in a zone called the asteroid or the main belt, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

For example: (Based on My Inputs):

Distance from Impact: 3000.00 km = 1863.00 miles
Projectile Diameter: 1000000.00 m = 3280000.00 ft = 621.00 miles
Projectile Density: 1500 kg/m3
Impact Velocity: 100.00 km/s = 62.10 miles/s
Impact Angle: 90 degrees
Target Density: 1500 kg/m3
Target Type: Competent Rock or saturated soil

Energy: 9.38 x 1014 MegaTons TNT - the interval between impacts of this size somewhere on Earth is 3.7 x 1013years.

Final Crater Diameter: 10162.11 miles

Time for maximum radiation: 315.54 seconds after impact.

Visible fireball radius: 30860.2 km. The fireball appears 2337.9 times larger than the sun

Effects of Thermal Radiation: Clothing ignites, Much of the body suffers third degree burns, Newspaper ignites,Plywood flames, Deciduous trees ignite, Grass ignites. The major seismic shaking will arrive at approximately 600.0 seconds. Richter Scale Magnitude: 14.6 (This is greater than any shaking in recorded history)

The ejecta will arrive approximately 1021.5 seconds after the impact. My position is beneath the continuous ejecta deposit. Average Ejecta Thickness: 1022997.07 ft. The air blast will arrive at approximately 10000.0 seconds. Max wind velocity: 29916.8 mph. Sound Intensity: 170 dB.

Damage Description: Multistory wall-bearing buildings will collapse. Wood frame buildings will almost completely collapse. Multistory steel-framed office-type buildings will suffer extreme frame distortion, incipient collapse. Highway truss bridges will collapse. Highway girder bridges will collapse. Glass windows will shatter. Cars and trucks will be largely displaced and grossly distorted and will require rebuilding before use. Up to 90 percent of trees blown down; remainder stripped of branches and leaves.


Note from The Wizard: These results come with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY

*Ananova