Re: Theories on the extinction of dinosaurs

["James R. Cunningham" <jrccea@bellsouth.net>]

Larry Febo wrote:

> How do they know the object was 6 mi in diameter?

They don't, but estimate it from the size of the crater.  I suspect it was
less.  If it were 3 mi in diameter, the kinetic energy would have been reduced
by a factor of 8.

> How did they know it was
> traveling at 30 miles per sec???

Again, they don't.  The minimum velocity would have been about 11 miles/sec, max
about 50 miles/sec.  The two limits average to 30.5 miles/sec which implies too
much accuracy, so it gets rounded to 30, give or take about 20.  Raising the
velocity from 11 to 50 will increase the energy by a factor of 20.7, from 30 to
50 by a factor of 2.8.  Reducing it from 30 to 11 reduces the energy by a factor
of 7.4.  This all assumes the body originated in the solar system.  If it were
an interloper, the velocity could have been much, much higher.