4 ms·
I had to think about this, but much of the dust will not shoot straight up like a column (with no tangential component), but will be shot sideways, conceivably
by sageikosa 14y ago
I had to think about this, but much of the dust will not shoot straight up like a column (with no tangential component), but will be shot sideways, conceivably with enough initial momentum to attain orbital speeds (which are lower on Mars than Earth), with less drag to hinder.
Don't know if it would be 1000 years, but I'd guess it would coalesce into a ring like structure over time anyway.
- danielweber 14y agoGiven one single impulse from the surface, you will either land back on the planet; or, with enough force, totally escape the planet (called a hyperbolic orbit, I think, which doesn't actually orbit). Even amazing plans to build railguns on mountains to launch things to space requires some kind of secondary thrust to change into a new orbit that won't land back on the planet.
- sageikosa 14y agoA small but finite amount of dust could fall in the range of initially traveling at escape velocity but then slowed to orbital velocity by the scant atmospheric drag. But definitely not 1000 years of opaque orbital debris. Anyway, I would think atmospheric dust storms as the post-impact pressure wave cycles around the plant would make Mars more messy in the hypothetical aftermath than any orbital debris.