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I haven't done any calculations but wouldn't they use nuclear warheads to deflect it?
by alkyon 2y ago
I haven't done any calculations but wouldn't they use nuclear warheads to deflect it?
- dylan604 2y agoMaybe if this was a Michael Bay movie, but real scientists know that an Earth ending level event would just laugh at your nukes as it just flew on by. In the grand scheme of the cosmos, man made nukes are but a mere gnat at the picnic nuisance.
- throwawaymaths 2y agoThis particular asteroid is the size of a jet plane, so a nuke would probably have an effect.
- alkyon 2y agoIf it isn't the Moon but an asteroid of 100m radius then deflecting or breaking it apart is feasible. https://www.llnl.gov/article/50716/new-nuclear-deflection-simulations-advance-planetary-defense-against-asteroid-threats https://www.llnl.gov/article/50716/new-nuclear-deflection-si...
- kurthr 2y agoTo estimate this order of magnitude. A typical (non MERV) 1.2Mt B83 in the active US nuclear arsenal would likely vaporize ~100m diameter hemisphere to deflect a relatively large 3km asteroid. Assuming an asteroid at 1-10 km/sec relative velocity 12 days out is 1-10M km away and earth is ~10k km across. So a deflection angle of ~1-10mrad is needed for a 3km (~10km3) spherical asteroid mass of ~10^13kg. A 5E15 J/Mt 1000kg bomb with a half momentum of about 10^9 kgkm/sec could deflect an angle of 0.1mrad 12 days out. Half energy conservation would gives you a similar ~0.01km/sec dV, so you'd need >10x more time or >10x more 1Mt nukes for a 3km asteroid. It gets much worse for larger asteroids, but interestingly dV doesn't change quickly with relative velocity since the required angle falls as the velocity rises.