>'Better questions are like, "how do we understand orbits in the solar system?" or "why do magnets stick to refrigerators?"'
What about how exactly do people predict how likely it is the orbit of an asteroid/comet will intersect that of the earth? That is a very interesting problem. It is not at all solved as well as it could be.
What about how exactly do people predict how likely it is the orbit of an asteroid/comet will intersect that of the earth? That is a very interesting problem. It is not at all solved as well as it could be.
First homework, reproduce the JPL HORIZONS ephemerides in your own way: http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons.cgi
Second homework, improve upon this either in accuracy or efficiency.