Impact Calculator

I recently found this page http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/impacteffects/, which I'm going to use next week to help finish my current lab. Students are calculating the orbits of a few NEO(near earth objects) and plotting them with the orbit of the our home planet in order to determine whether these objects pose an immediate threat. Other important ideas are discovered here too, but the addition of a writing piece that involves the potential consequences of a chance meeting with a given object should really bring home the point. Students can use this page to run simulated impacts and adjust the numbers to match their asteroids. Even though this does not have the high impact graphics or the entertaining aspects of other pages, this is a good looking, simple to use resource that has a very good purpose. It's also something that I find interesting...just plug in a few things and see what will happen when a rather small (1000m) object lands at 100 miles from your house, then try one that's a bit larger(say 10 miles) and have it land 100 miles away. This could also lead to another creative writing where students put themselves at a given distance from the impact and describe what they see, what happens and how their "normal" lives are interrupted/changed....so many possibilities!