Large astroid hitting earth

[jtvang125]

In the opening scene of Armageddon (yes, I know this movie is far from being scientifically correct) a large astroid supposedly hits earth a few million years ago and causes an explosion. This explosion continues globally and eventually consumes the whole planet.

Movie aside, is it possible for an astroid to cause an explosion on that grand of scale? I mean it's only a big chunk of rock falling from the sky.

 

[Soccerman06]

The Asteroid would have to be immense, atleast the size of the moon, to cause an explosion on a world-wide scale. An asteroid the size of texas can screw the whole world over. When an asteroid hits the ground big enough to screw the world, it doesnt actually explode, the only hot parts are a few hundred miles around the impact zone. The real damage is from the spray of earth and dirt from the impact, which would cover the whole world blocking out sunlight for many hundreds of years, leading to an ice-age. That is the basic and oversimplified version of what will happen.

 

[piddlefoot]

it can happen is the answer...

if its big enough and travelling fast enough , then yea a bloody big bang, E=MC².

 

[Gibsons]

Asteroids have very high velocities, which means lots of energy, which means very big explosions.

Play around with this Text

For reference, asteroids travel at something like 10-20 meters/sec, IIRC.

 

[MrDudeMan]

Originally posted by: Gibsons
Asteroids have very high velocities, which means lots of energy, which means very big explosions.

Play around with this Text

For reference, asteroids travel at something like 10-20 meters/sec, IIRC.

uhh 20 meters per second is 44 miles per hour...thats not very fast

 

[xTYBALTx]

Originally posted by: Gibsons
Asteroids have very high velocities, which means lots of energy, which means very big explosions.

Play around with this Text

For reference, asteroids travel at something like 10-20 kilometers/sec, IIRC.

 

[MrDudeMan]

Originally posted by: xTYBALTx

Originally posted by: Gibsons
Asteroids have very high velocities, which means lots of energy, which means very big explosions.

Play around with this Text

For reference, asteroids travel at something like 10-20 kilometers/sec, IIRC.

that makes more sense

 

[scottish144]

It also depends on its make up. If the asteroid is from the outer (Kuiper) Belt, or was a comet, than it would be mostley ice and a lot of it would burn up in the atmosphere. If its mostly rock or metal, then we're screwed. Additionally, screw texas. An asteroid 1 km long would just about screw the world on its own. Consider an asteroid the size of a soccer ball can make a crater hundreds of feet deep and more than a mile wide. Scale up from there. Also, if a 1 km asteroid landed in the ocean, worldwide tsunami.

 

[Gibsons]

Originally posted by: Bigsm00th

Originally posted by: xTYBALTx

Originally posted by: Gibsons
Asteroids have very high velocities, which means lots of energy, which means very big explosions.

Play around with this Text

For reference, asteroids travel at something like 10-20 kilometers/sec, IIRC.

that makes more sense

😱

So what's 3 orders of magnitude between friends? 😀

 

[The Pentium Guy]

I read a book about guys that constantly check if an asteriod is about to hit the earth. Asteriods are no big deal - their orbits CAN be predicted if spotted, but COMETS are even bigger deal. They're big balls of dirty ice, so any exposure to the heat from the sun could cause them to disorient themselves and spiral off into the wrong direction. Earth is in the middle of a big asteriod belt 🙂.

 

[xTYBALTx]

I fail to see how being able to predict a giant asteroid slamming into earth makes it "no big deal."

"Hey Tybalt, you're going to die in 3 days."

"Meh, no biggie."

 

[The Pentium Guy]

Originally posted by: xTYBALTx
I fail to see how being able to predict a giant asteroid slamming into earth makes it "no big deal."

"Hey Tybalt, you're going to die in 3 days."

"Meh, no biggie."

LOL@that.

However we wouldn't be able to do anything with it. IIRC a large asteriod makes about 40 megatons of force, but a nuke makes "only" several kilotons. So even if we nuked the thing forever, we wouldn't be able to do anything about it. The majority of the AT'ers would be having sex and doing other things that they normally wouldn't be doing 😛, and other people would be sitting there praying to god.

 

[piddlefoot]

well its never a big deal until some one looses money in this world...!


omg, its the one totally unpredictable thing we humans cant stop if it were to happen, not to mention we only see around 10 per cent of whats actually out there wizzing around, and theres stuff moving so fast we got bucklies of tracking it if its on a colision coarse with Earth at it speed, and stopping that, meh , humans , no hope at the moment, we are as powerful as any other creature on Earth at the moment if a big fast one comes, thats the fact, anyone thinking we have a chance if we spot a 1 mile asteriod tomorrow headed straight for us, is tripping.......its ice age time......
Humans wanna think about space debris alot more than we do, its the one unpredictable that we just cant estimate, or chance, we as a species are ignorant to it, we [ our govenments ] spend very little on planetary safety in this aspect, ok the Americans have some tracking stations, woopee , its a start that should have been followed up on years ago, now we are behind the 8 ball....
If our pollution or nuc s dont kill us and we ovcercome all our species problems, the one variable is a bloody big rock, or ice at the right speed and size will kill us just as good, all that matters is mass and velosity and of coarse its target.....Earth.....

 

[xTYBALTx]

^ you have too many computers. i can put that fx55 & x800xt to good use if you like.

Since you would know, which chip do you prefer for gaming? the 2.8ghz fx or the 2.2ghz x2? Huge mhz difference, so maybe it's an unfair question buut. . .


Edit: piddlefoot:

well its never a big deal until some one looses money in this world...!

loose: Not fastened, restrained, or contained. A loose chair leg.
lose: To be unsuccesful in retaining possession of. He's always losing money.

 

[bsobel]

However we wouldn't be able to do anything with it. IIRC a large asteriod makes about 40 megatons of force, but a nuke makes "only" several kilotons. So even if we nuked the thing forever, we wouldn't be able to do anything about it. The majority of the AT'ers would be having sex and doing other things that they normally wouldn't be doing 😛, and other people would be sitting there praying to god.

I don't think you understand the physics involved. It actually doesn't take that much energy to course correct an asteroid if it's done early enough. A nuke detonated on one side would cause a signigant course change over time. Now, if you try that 2 minutes before impact like in the movies, it doesnt' matter (you hit Newport beach instead of Laguna beach). But if you do that 6 months prior....

Bill

 

[xTYBALTx]

Originally posted by: bsobel

However we wouldn't be able to do anything with it. IIRC a large asteriod makes about 40 megatons of force, but a nuke makes "only" several kilotons. So even if we nuked the thing forever, we wouldn't be able to do anything about it. The majority of the AT'ers would be having sex and doing other things that they normally wouldn't be doing 😛, and other people would be sitting there praying to god.

I don't think you understand the physics involved. It actually doesn't take that much energy to course correct an asteroid if it's done early enough. A nuke detonated on one side would cause a signigant course change over time. Now, if you try that 2 minutes before impact like in the movies, it doesnt' matter (you hit Newport beach instead of Laguna beach). But if you do that 6 months prior....

Bill

Sounds like trying to hit a mosquito with a rifle from 800 yards.

 

[bsobel]

Sounds like trying to hit a mosquito with a rifle from 800 yards.

Mosquito's have a random and highly unpredictible flight path, asteroids do not.

It's more like shooting down the train tracks with a rifle...

 

[Soccerman06]

Originally posted by: The Pentium Guy

Originally posted by: xTYBALTx
I fail to see how being able to predict a giant asteroid slamming into earth makes it "no big deal."

"Hey Tybalt, you're going to die in 3 days."

"Meh, no biggie."

LOL@that.

However we wouldn't be able to do anything with it. IIRC a large asteriod makes about 40 megatons of force, but a nuke makes "only" several kilotons. So even if we nuked the thing forever, we wouldn't be able to do anything about it. The majority of the AT'ers would be having sex and doing other things that they normally wouldn't be doing 😛, and other people would be sitting there praying to god.

WTF you talkin about, "kilotons", the Soviet Union detonated a H-bomb with the power of 50 megatons on October 30, 1961. "In fact, the 50-MT bomb tested on 30 October 1961 was never a weapon. This was a one-of-a-kind device, whose design allowed it to achieve a yield of up to 100 megatons when fully loaded with nuclear fuel. Thus, the test of the 50-MT bomb was in effect the test of the design for a 100-MT weapon. If a blast of such horrific magnitude had been conducted, it would have generated a gigantic, fiery tornado, engulfing an area larger than Vladimirskaya Oblast in Russia or the state of Maryland in the USA."

http://www.bilderberg.org/hbomb.htm#Tsar

I think more powerful bombs have been thought up in the last 40 years for just this type of circumstances

 

[Gibsons]

Originally posted by: Soccerman06

Originally posted by: The Pentium Guy

Originally posted by: xTYBALTx
I fail to see how being able to predict a giant asteroid slamming into earth makes it "no big deal."

"Hey Tybalt, you're going to die in 3 days."

"Meh, no biggie."

LOL@that.

However we wouldn't be able to do anything with it. IIRC a large asteriod makes about 40 megatons of force, but a nuke makes "only" several kilotons. So even if we nuked the thing forever, we wouldn't be able to do anything about it. The majority of the AT'ers would be having sex and doing other things that they normally wouldn't be doing 😛, and other people would be sitting there praying to god.

WTF you talkin about, "kilotons", the Soviet Union detonated a H-bomb with the power of 50 megatons on October 30, 1961. "In fact, the 50-MT bomb tested on 30 October 1961 was never a weapon. This was a one-of-a-kind device, whose design allowed it to achieve a yield of up to 100 megatons when fully loaded with nuclear fuel. Thus, the test of the 50-MT bomb was in effect the test of the design for a 100-MT weapon. If a blast of such horrific magnitude had been conducted, it would have generated a gigantic, fiery tornado, engulfing an area larger than Vladimirskaya Oblast in Russia or the state of Maryland in the USA."

http://www.bilderberg.org/hbomb.htm#Tsar

I think more powerful bombs have been thought up in the last 40 years for just this type of circumstances

Yes, you can make bombs much much bigger than the Soviet's 50MT. You can scale bombs up just by adding more stages, each larger than the last. The Tsar Bomba was "just" a three stage device (most weapons are two stage). I think the only limit to how many stages you can build is how much material you have.

Of course it would be difficult to lug such a monster into space and get it to the target fast enough. I still haven't heard of a scheme better than detecting them very early and giving them a small nuclear nudge. If you find it years in advance, it only takes a very small push, which means you don't need monster nukes at all. Plus it's far enough in advance to give you a second chance should you botch it somehow.

 

[Soccerman06]

Originally posted by: Gibsons

Originally posted by: Soccerman06

Originally posted by: The Pentium Guy

Originally posted by: xTYBALTx
I fail to see how being able to predict a giant asteroid slamming into earth makes it "no big deal."

"Hey Tybalt, you're going to die in 3 days."

"Meh, no biggie."

LOL@that.

However we wouldn't be able to do anything with it. IIRC a large asteriod makes about 40 megatons of force, but a nuke makes "only" several kilotons. So even if we nuked the thing forever, we wouldn't be able to do anything about it. The majority of the AT'ers would be having sex and doing other things that they normally wouldn't be doing 😛, and other people would be sitting there praying to god.

WTF you talkin about, "kilotons", the Soviet Union detonated a H-bomb with the power of 50 megatons on October 30, 1961. "In fact, the 50-MT bomb tested on 30 October 1961 was never a weapon. This was a one-of-a-kind device, whose design allowed it to achieve a yield of up to 100 megatons when fully loaded with nuclear fuel. Thus, the test of the 50-MT bomb was in effect the test of the design for a 100-MT weapon. If a blast of such horrific magnitude had been conducted, it would have generated a gigantic, fiery tornado, engulfing an area larger than Vladimirskaya Oblast in Russia or the state of Maryland in the USA."

http://www.bilderberg.org/hbomb.htm#Tsar

I think more powerful bombs have been thought up in the last 40 years for just this type of circumstances

Yes, you can make bombs much much bigger than the Soviet's 50MT. You can scale bombs up just by adding more stages, each larger than the last. The Tsar Bomba was "just" a three stage device (most weapons are two stage). I think the only limit to how many stages you can build is how much material you have.

Of course it would be difficult to lug such a monster into space and get it to the target fast enough. I still haven't heard of a scheme better than detecting them very early and giving them a small nuclear nudge. If you find it years in advance, it only takes a very small push, which means you don't need monster nukes at all. Plus it's far enough in advance to give you a second chance should you botch it somehow.

If they are light enough for a B-2 bomber to carry and use, then their light enough to go into space.

 

[Woodchuck2000]

Originally posted by: piddlefoot
it can happen is the answer...

if its big enough and travelling fast enough , then yea a bloody big bang, E=MC².

That's simply doesn't follow. You're saying that if it's travelling fast enough, then E=MC^2... Except there's no velocity term in that equation.

Einstein's equation only applies with total conversion of mass into energy such as during nuclear fission. In this case the destruction happens due to a change in momentum. An asteroid weighing 2000 tonnes, travelling at 50 kilometers/second has kinetic energy (mv^2)/2 i.e. 5x10^15 joules or roughly 1 Megaton. That's gotta go somewhere on impact... And that's a small, slow asteroid.

 

[The Pentium Guy]

Originally posted by: Soccerman06

Originally posted by: The Pentium Guy

Originally posted by: xTYBALTx
I fail to see how being able to predict a giant asteroid slamming into earth makes it "no big deal."

"Hey Tybalt, you're going to die in 3 days."

"Meh, no biggie."

LOL@that.

However we wouldn't be able to do anything with it. IIRC a large asteriod makes about 40 megatons of force, but a nuke makes "only" several kilotons. So even if we nuked the thing forever, we wouldn't be able to do anything about it. The majority of the AT'ers would be having sex and doing other things that they normally wouldn't be doing 😛, and other people would be sitting there praying to god.

WTF you talkin about, "kilotons", the Soviet Union detonated a H-bomb with the power of 50 megatons on October 30, 1961. "In fact, the 50-MT bomb tested on 30 October 1961 was never a weapon. This was a one-of-a-kind device, whose design allowed it to achieve a yield of up to 100 megatons when fully loaded with nuclear fuel. Thus, the test of the 50-MT bomb was in effect the test of the design for a 100-MT weapon. If a blast of such horrific magnitude had been conducted, it would have generated a gigantic, fiery tornado, engulfing an area larger than Vladimirskaya Oblast in Russia or the state of Maryland in the USA."

http://www.bilderberg.org/hbomb.htm#Tsar

I think more powerful bombs have been thought up in the last 40 years for just this type of circumstances

Sorry - I didn't have the exact numbers on top of my head, I read the book a few months ago. I'll refer to it (and give you guys the name of the book) and get back to ya 😛.

However the whole theory about hitting a nuke on a 1 mile wide asteroid.

Sounds like trying to hit a mosquito with a rifle from 800 yards.

I'd say more like.... "Sounds like a mosquito trying to alter a marathon runner's course."

 

[piddlefoot]

Originally posted by: xTYBALTx
^ you have too many computers. i can put that fx55 & x800xt to good use if you like.

Since you would know, which chip do you prefer for gaming? the 2.8ghz fx or the 2.2ghz x2? Huge mhz difference, so maybe it's an unfair question buut. . .


The x2 duel eats the fx55 in online games, the fx55 eats the duel core in single player / or offline, backround tasks, the duel is like two 3200+s slapped together.

And sry my wife wants the fx55 for herself as she always plays offline games.....gta vice city......

 

[piddlefoot]

Originally posted by: Woodchuck2000

Originally posted by: piddlefoot
it can happen is the answer...

if its big enough and travelling fast enough , then yea a bloody big bang, E=MC².

That's simply doesn't follow. You're saying that if it's travelling fast enough, then E=MC^2... Except there's no velocity term in that equation.

Einstein's equation only applies with total conversion of mass into energy such as during nuclear fission. In this case the destruction happens due to a change in momentum. An asteroid weighing 2000 tonnes, travelling at 50 kilometers/second has kinetic energy (mv^2)/2 i.e. 5x10^15 joules or roughly 1 Megaton. That's gotta go somewhere on impact... And that's a small, slow asteroid.

E=MC² can be applied to everything/ explosion/ explosion prediction we ever see inside our universe. fact.Everything we have seen bar blackholes can have E=MC² applied to it for a mathematical answer, every explosion recorded in history so far has been inside the E=MC² law, yes it can tell us a total conversion and it can tell us so much more, and it tells us the faster something is moving effectivly the more mass it has, and the more mass something has the more ENERGY needed to stop or deflect the object, a basic of E=MC², and E=MC² can be applied to everything in our universe, every spec.

 

[f95toli]

No offense, but where did you learn about E=mc^2? You seem to think it some some kind of miracle formula.

In E=mc^2 m depends on the speed, if we let m0 be the usual "classical rest mass"
we can write the kinetic energy as

K=m0 c^2(gamma-1)

where gamma=1/sqrt(1-v^2/c^2)

now, if v<<c, as in the case of the asteroid, we can expand this to first order and get

m0c^2*1(1+0.5*v^2/c^2-1)=m0v^2/2

which is just the ordinary expression for the kinetic energy of an object with mass m0 traveling at speed v.

Hence, unless you belive that some of the mass of the asteroid will be converted into energy (i.e. a fussion or fission process) upon collision it does not make sense to use
E=mc^2 in this case.
And obviously you can NOT simply use the rest mass (=m0) of the asteroid for m in E=mc^2.