3 ms·
Method 1: Annihilated by an equivalent quantity of antimatter I don't think this would work as well as one might assume. When Earth and anti-Earth collide, the
by _kst_ 10y ago
Method 1: Annihilated by an equivalent quantity of antimatter
I don't think this would work as well as one might assume. When Earth and anti-Earth collide, the vast majority of the mass will be blown into space by the initial explosion, and will never actually get a chance to annihilate. There might even be some coherent chunks left over.
If you can manage to transform every other atom from matter to antimatter, evenly distributed through the body of the planet, then you've got yourself a good kaboom.
Method 11: Ripped apart by tidal forces.
The idea here is to move Earth within the Roche limit of either the Sun or Jupiter. The problem is that the Roche limit depends on density, and Earth is substantially denser than either the Sun or Jupiter (Earth 5.51, Sun 1.41, Jupiter 1.33). I haven't done the math, but it's possible that the relevant Roche limit in both cases would be below the surface -- i.e., the Earth would (barely) survive the tidal stress even in a surface-hugging orbit. And once you've done that, you might as well just drop it a little lower; falling into either the Sun or Jupiter would do the trick quite effectively.
- Shivetya 10y agoI read this site and am reminded of EE Doc Smith's Lensman series. He has many of the methods described, including hurling an antimatter planet at another, relativistic speed planets, and even a sun beam though that was used to vaporize a fleet. Great imagination with a few throw backs to the sensibilities of his age but he did go beyond them too
- deciplex 10y ago> I don't think this would work as well as one might assume. When Earth and anti-Earth collide, the vast majority of the mass will be blown into space by the initial explosion, and will never actually get a chance to annihilate. There might even be some coherent chunks left over. The author mentioned an Earth made from antimatter. How about a spherical shell of gaseous antimatter, whose total mass is equal to Earth? Make Earth the center of this sphere, then wait.
- _kst_ 10y agoThe matter-antimatter annihilation near the boundary would generate enough energy to blow the antimatter shell into deep space (where it would cause some serious problems for the rest of the Solar System). The released energy would likely (I haven't done the math) be enough to vaporize the Earth, which would meet the original requirements, but I don't think it would annihilate a large percentage of the Earth's mass.