if an asteroid 6 miles wide was coming right for us...

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swanysto

Golden Member
May 8, 2005
1,949
9
81
Yazoo said:
No matter how much notice we had, a asteroid 6 miles in length landing anywhere on the planet would wipe us out. Approx one hundred trillion tons of dirt and rock would be hurled into the atmosphere and entomb the earth in a dark, cold hell. Odds are it would land in the ocean, causing massive global tsunami's.

No amount of nukes could stop it, we would actually make it worse by breaking it up into multiple objects instead of just one.

We don't have the ability to stop this. Imagine 10-20 thousand nuclear weapons all going off at once. The best we could do would to push it off course, but then it may smash into the moon or the sun.

Even if DA14 hit California for example which is the length of 3 tractor trailers, would wipe out most of the state and cause massive earthquakes.
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I strongly disagree. 6 miles is nothing. That is actually a small corn field in most Midwestern states. The damage it did would be dependent on it's velocity. I am pretty sure our atmosphere would slow it a bit. But breaking it into smaller parts would slow the velocity as well. AND, many of the pieces would be sent off course in other directions.

Not to mention if it landed in the ocean, that is like throwing the biggest rock you can carry into a pond. There might be some tsunami like conditions if it hits close to a shoreline, but the thing would virtually disappear in the middle of the ocean. You are talking about a rock less than 1/1000000th the size of the Atlantic Ocean.

The damage would be greatly less.
 
OILFIELDTRASH

OILFIELDTRASH

Lifer
May 13, 2009
12,333
612
126
swanysto said:
I strongly disagree. 6 miles is nothing. That is actually a small corn field in most Midwestern states. The damage it did would be dependent on it's velocity. I am pretty sure our atmosphere would slow it a bit. But breaking it into smaller parts would slow the velocity as well. AND, many of the pieces would be sent off course in other directions.

Not to mention if it landed in the ocean, that is like throwing the biggest rock you can carry into a pond. There might be some tsunami like conditions if it hits close to a shoreline, but the thing would virtually disappear in the middle of the ocean. You are talking about a rock less than 1/1000000th the size of the Atlantic Ocean.

The damage would be greatly less.
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You do know that the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs was roughly 6 miles wide and also impacted in the ocean? The crater from impact was 180km in diameter. I think you haven't wrapped your head around the power something that massive moving at 30km a second is.
 
T

TXHokie

Platinum Member
Nov 16, 1999
2,558
176
106
ichy said:
Breaking it into pieces is the last thing you'd want to do. The goal would be to alter its course.
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Yep, a nudge so it'll miss earth. If that fails nudge it so it'll miss the US and hit somebody else...like north Korea.
 
amdhunter

amdhunter

Lifer
May 19, 2003
23,332
249
106
TXHokie said:
Yep, a nudge so it'll miss earth. If that fails nudge it so it'll miss the US and hit somebody else...like north Korea.
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Kim Jong-un will blow it out of the sky with their nukes. I just hope they have the range.

1334602684_footage_from_the_north_korean_missile_test_from_conan.gif
 
GagHalfrunt

GagHalfrunt

Lifer
Apr 19, 2001
25,284
1,997
126
swanysto said:
I strongly disagree. 6 miles is nothing.
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6 miles is about the size of the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs and that one was mostly rock. If another one of that size hit it would probably do the same thing and wipe out all life that's larger than a rabbit or so. And if one of that size made primarily of iron hit then you could kiss the small mammals bye-bye too.
 
P

Paul98

Diamond Member
Jan 31, 2010
3,732
199
106
You do not nuke an asteroid of that size or any size really. We would want to change it's velocity slightly to move it out of the path of the earth. Nuking it is not the way to do it.
 
Atomic Playboy

Atomic Playboy

Lifer
Feb 6, 2007
16,432
1
81
Yazoo said:
We don't have the ability to stop this. Imagine 10-20 thousand nuclear weapons all going off at once. The best we could do would to push it off course, but then it may smash into the moon or the sun.
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... So? Do you think a meteor 6 miles wide is going to destroy a star?
 
V

Vdubchaos

Lifer
Nov 11, 2009
10,408
10
0
...I would hope it would hit me right on the head.

You would not want to be the one to survive, unless you want to see hell on earth.
 
B

BUTCH1

Lifer
Jul 15, 2000
20,433
1,769
126
The big variables are, how much time do we have to deflect it?, what is it made of?, if impact is years away a small deflection is enough, land a small booster stage on it and light it, pushing it off course but this won't work on an asteroid that's barely held together bunch of rocks or made of ice..
 
OILFIELDTRASH

OILFIELDTRASH

Lifer
May 13, 2009
12,333
612
126
BUTCH1 said:
The big variables are, how much time do we have to deflect it?, what is it made of?, if impact is years away a small deflection is enough, land a small booster stage on it and light it, pushing it off course but this won't work on an asteroid that's barely held together bunch of rocks or made of ice..
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We make it sound so easy. Just land a booster on it and make it go away.

It's a floating mountain moving at 18 miles a second. How these scientists come up with the calculations to even get a rocket on there would probably make my friggin head explode.
 
B

BUTCH1

Lifer
Jul 15, 2000
20,433
1,769
126
OILFIELDTRASH said:
We make it sound so easy. Just land a booster on it and make it go away.

It's a floating mountain moving at 18 miles a second. How these scientists come up with the calculations to even get a rocket on there would probably make my friggin head explode.
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There have already been 2 successful landings, one by us the other by Japan. Thing is these had a relatively slow spin rate, trying to do it on one with a rapid spin rate might be very difficult indeed..
 
N

NiceCold

Senior member
May 14, 2011
543
0
0
nuking it would be worst since it will scatter into small pieces and spread all over the earth and cause more damage. they should nuke with a custom made super mega glue specially made by scientist and nuke it at the meteor which wraps the whole meteor with its super mega sticky goo-like gum that when it impact..... it will reduce the damage and keeps the pieces together from spreading.
 
Atomic Playboy

Atomic Playboy

Lifer
Feb 6, 2007
16,432
1
81
nicecold said:
nuking it would be worst since it will scatter into small pieces and spread all over the earth and cause more damage. They should nuke with a custom made super mega glue specially made by scientist and nuke it at the meteor which wraps the whole meteor with its super mega sticky goo-like gum that when it impact..... It will reduce the damage and keeps the pieces together from spreading.
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Science!
 
M

momeNt

Diamond Member
Jan 26, 2011
9,290
352
126
Better off just making a really strong thruster to push it out of the way. It wouldn't expend the thruster and it could be re-used for another meteor later on.
 
yhelothar

yhelothar

Lifer
Dec 11, 2002
18,409
39
91
NiceCold said:
nuking it would be worst since it will scatter into small pieces and spread all over the earth and cause more damage. they should nuke with a custom made super mega glue specially made by scientist and nuke it at the meteor which wraps the whole meteor with its super mega sticky goo-like gum that when it impact..... it will reduce the damage and keeps the pieces together from spreading.
Click to expand...

Small pieces would get eaten up by the atmosphere.

There was just a 10 ton one that hit Russia yesterday. All they got was something that lit up the sky that turned night into day, and a shockwave that smashed windows all over.
 
preslove

preslove

Lifer
Sep 10, 2003
16,754
63
91
Wouldn't breaking it up into little pieces when it's 20 years away srsly deflect those pieces away from the original object's trajectory.
 
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