Why does the graphic have two streaks and a triangle? I can't figure out where to get more information.
In case it's not clear what I mean, one streak is greenish and the other is yellow/red. The triangle is black and one edge of it is colored red and seems to connect the centers of the streaks.
I'll take an educated guess:
(1) they are two different elevations
(2) they are essentially heatmaps of strike probability elongated because of the earth's rotation
(3) the triangle is a right triangle situated in a plane perpendicular to the earth's surface so that the red line indicates the angle.
It's funny that they'd have a strike location on the surface given that they said it won't hit the surface. But maybe it's a standard way to do the graphic, in which case it represents where it would strike if it were big enough even though it's not.
> [T]he coloured regions represent impact probabilities (to 1, 3, and 5 sigma). The red-orange-yellow area shows where the asteroid would reach Earth's surface if there were no atmosphere in the way.
>
> But there is an atmosphere! So we also mark in green where the asteroid will be when it is at an altitude of 100 km. This is roughly where it will begin to break up and therefore where observers could start seeing a fireball.
>
> The red line would be the asteroid's trajectory between those two points, if it were still one solid object, which it won't be.
I think it's the uncertainty areas. One it's 100km height and the other for 0m. It can be seen better on these links [0] [1]. I think it's done this way to show the trajectory.
In case it's not clear what I mean, one streak is greenish and the other is yellow/red. The triangle is black and one edge of it is colored red and seems to connect the centers of the streaks.
I'll take an educated guess:
(1) they are two different elevations
(2) they are essentially heatmaps of strike probability elongated because of the earth's rotation
(3) the triangle is a right triangle situated in a plane perpendicular to the earth's surface so that the red line indicates the angle.
It's funny that they'd have a strike location on the surface given that they said it won't hit the surface. But maybe it's a standard way to do the graphic, in which case it represents where it would strike if it were big enough even though it's not.