OT- Impact of an asteriod hitting Eastern USA

tesco samoa · #1 November 26th, 2003, 05:28 PM

maybe drill into the astroid and release the bomb ??

Phoenix-D · #2 November 26th, 2003, 05:33 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by oleg:

quote:
Originally posted by Phoenix-D:
Narf, nuke warheads are always measured in kilotons of TNT, the amount of that required to produce an equvilent explosion.

The problem is in space, you have no air. No air and you have no overpressure, no bLast wave..no concusive effects. Its conciveable that even the space shuttle could survive a fairly near miss with a nuke in space, most of the force is lost.

I doubt that. It is still a HUGE amount of energy reliased. Lack of air removes the shock wave, but insted we will have a stream of sublight-speed particles that are no longer opposed by atmosphere density. We will still have the same sort of "front wave", now propogating with the speed of light. If you remember from nukes explosions, staff around the center was evaporated. It is caused by photons, not a shockwave !

And the shuttle has these nice heat-resisting tiles. Depends how "near" the near miss is I suppose, though you're right the shrapnel might be nasty.

Roanon · #3 November 27th, 2003, 12:38 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by oleg:
but insted we will have a stream of sublight-speed particles that are no longer opposed by atmosphere density. We will still have the same sort of "front wave", now propogating with the speed of light. If you remember from nukes explosions, staff around the center was evaporated. It is caused by photons, not a shockwave !

Well, if you think of sublight-speed particles, you should certainly not select photons

. Also, there is relatively few resistance to them (or other particles) from atmoshpere density, at least here on earth. Not even on Jupiter. Except on diskworld, I have not yet seen light been slowed down by air

.
If you mean alpha particles, neutrons, or anything else like that - the evaporation of the staff in the center may be caused by them, but not via measurable concussive force. This is matter destruction on a molecular/atomic level, and while you may be able to turn a small portion of said asteroid into dust its course will not be affected in any way.

narf poit chez BOOM · #4 November 27th, 2003, 12:49 AM

ok. but i suppose if we really want to know, we're going to have to blow up a nuke in space.

Captain Kwok · #5 November 27th, 2003, 12:56 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Roanon:
Except on diskworld, I have not yet seen light been slowed down by air .

Are you sure? It happens every day for me...the speed of light here through air on Earth is .9998c - a measly difference of just under 90,000 m/s.

Cyrien · #6 November 27th, 2003, 05:44 AM

In fact certain cosmic particles have exceeded the speed of light... in the earths atmosphere where the speed of light is marginally slower than in a vacuum. Ever heard of Cherenkov radiation? The Sonic Boom of Light Speed?

Also the largest nuke ever detonated on Earth by the old Soviets was not measured in kt but in Mt 50 of them to be exact. Most are kt due to reduced efficiency in larger explosions compared to smaller ones for military purposes. The largest bomb ever built again by the Soviets (same as the one they detonated actually) is 100Mt. If ever used to full effect it could increase global fallout from a nuclear war by 50% all by itself.

I love humans.

[ November 27, 2003, 03:46: Message edited by: Cyrien ]

Cyrien · #7 November 27th, 2003, 05:50 AM

Oh yah. And solar sails and painting it white would only work with significant lead time on the asteroid. The current expected lead time on an earth impacting asteroid is not sufficient for such methods to work. You would have to detect it years out and have the system you plan on using on the asteroid already ready to be deployed. After all it has to be setup, launched, get to the asteroid, and then deploy whatever it deploys, and only after sufficient time will it alter the path.

For discovering something a few days or months out about all you could do is launch all the earths nukes at it with your best missiles pray, have a party whatever your pick is and hope enough get their to vaporize it. Nukes won't change the path but enough of them in waves can vaporize just about anything. There are advantages to having an internal explosion core temperature that exceeds the temperaturs of the sun.