In reply to Horace Heffner's message of Wed, 16 Feb 2005 01:13:26 -0900: Hi, [snip] >The velocity of collision of two bodies of mass and radius M, R, m and r >respectivley, is gravitationally bounded (on the low side) by > > V = (2 G M/(R+r))^0.5 + (2 G m/(R+r))^0.5. > >In the case of a body docking with the space station both M and m are very >small. In the case of planet or moon sized collisions, M and m are large, >so the total kinetic energy is large and thus V is large. [snip] Here you assume the low side initial velocity is zero, however it could also be negative (through interaction of one or both with a third body). >From a different point of view, the formula above assume a starting point >infinitely far away, however the starting point may be close by, resulting in >no opportunity to pick up speed.
Regards, Robin van Spaandonk All SPAM goes in the trash unread.
