Asteroid or meteoroid question.
Discussion
This is a completely hypothetical question.
If a meteoroid or slightly larger body, asteroid weighed in excess of a billion tons and was traveling at half the speed of light, maybe 500 meters or 1 mile across, hit the Earth, what do you think the outcome would be?.
Asteroid impacts can be at 155,000mph, a bit of an exact number, but lets say that is 32 miles per second. The speed of light, rounded, I believe, is 669,600,000mph.
So, an Asteroid weighing 5,000,000,000 tons, the size of a village, hits the Earth/travels at 33.5 million mph.
This is where I may seem/am wrong. That's like a fly hitting a freight train?. Size wise obviously, not weight and size with mass/gravity.
Would it pass through the Earth with no effect, except a huge hole or suck the Atmosphere off the Earth whilst creating a huge hole or would it destroy the Earth completely?. Would most humans get sucked into its directional path and die or would we not even notice it?
I'd appreciate your ideas and thoughts. No, I'm a nurse with a good/odd imagination, not an Astrophysics student.
If a meteoroid or slightly larger body, asteroid weighed in excess of a billion tons and was traveling at half the speed of light, maybe 500 meters or 1 mile across, hit the Earth, what do you think the outcome would be?.
Asteroid impacts can be at 155,000mph, a bit of an exact number, but lets say that is 32 miles per second. The speed of light, rounded, I believe, is 669,600,000mph.
So, an Asteroid weighing 5,000,000,000 tons, the size of a village, hits the Earth/travels at 33.5 million mph.
This is where I may seem/am wrong. That's like a fly hitting a freight train?. Size wise obviously, not weight and size with mass/gravity.
Would it pass through the Earth with no effect, except a huge hole or suck the Atmosphere off the Earth whilst creating a huge hole or would it destroy the Earth completely?. Would most humans get sucked into its directional path and die or would we not even notice it?
I'd appreciate your ideas and thoughts. No, I'm a nurse with a good/odd imagination, not an Astrophysics student.
Lets put it like this it would be messy.
Lots is going to depend on how it hits the atmosphere but I’m assuming your talking about a straight through straight to ground strike which is hugely unlikely. Then you have to decide if its going to hit deep water/shallow water/land mass.
If it hits deep water your going to vaporise a heck of a lot of water and make a bit of splash, probably enough to make the boxing day tsunami look like a minor bit of localised flooding.
If it hits shallow water your going to get a splash and a major earth quake immediately afterwards, the flooding would probably be less of a problem and your not going to get a huge dust cloud that you would from a land strike. Obviously depending on the region that is hit would regulated the effects on the worlds population.
If it hits solid ground then ouch, massive crater, huge earth quake and a dust cloud into earth’s atmosphere, probably not enough to start the next ice age or eliminate all life but may well cool the planet a few degrees for a couple of years.
Lots is going to depend on how it hits the atmosphere but I’m assuming your talking about a straight through straight to ground strike which is hugely unlikely. Then you have to decide if its going to hit deep water/shallow water/land mass.
If it hits deep water your going to vaporise a heck of a lot of water and make a bit of splash, probably enough to make the boxing day tsunami look like a minor bit of localised flooding.
If it hits shallow water your going to get a splash and a major earth quake immediately afterwards, the flooding would probably be less of a problem and your not going to get a huge dust cloud that you would from a land strike. Obviously depending on the region that is hit would regulated the effects on the worlds population.
If it hits solid ground then ouch, massive crater, huge earth quake and a dust cloud into earth’s atmosphere, probably not enough to start the next ice age or eliminate all life but may well cool the planet a few degrees for a couple of years.
Yes, dead on, strait through, not pitched or at low angle entry. Low angle entry, I'd be hoping most of the planet would still be on Earth and not taken off like a butter knife cutting through margarine at a shallow angle.
My personal view at a strait through/dead on impact would be a small blow out of the Earth on the impact area like the Marianas Trench. Exit point would be a lot larger. Basically a bullet through a body but on a huge scale.
I suppose, the thought of the intense gravity with the pass through would create a huge vortex of gravity, though that's only my thoughts.
My personal view at a strait through/dead on impact would be a small blow out of the Earth on the impact area like the Marianas Trench. Exit point would be a lot larger. Basically a bullet through a body but on a huge scale.
I suppose, the thought of the intense gravity with the pass through would create a huge vortex of gravity, though that's only my thoughts.
Your going to have huge slowing and heating as it plunges to earth (less than obviously if it comes in at a shallow angle), you would assume any rock would melt and more than likely explode (air pockets) as it comes down all this shedding massive amounts of energy from the impact before it hits the ground, the speed that your talking about in atmosphere I just don’t believe is feasible, I don't think the asteroid would go through the Earth as you suggest more that you would get a fairly deep crater and a huge amount of ejected matter.
read5458 said:
My personal view at a strait through/dead on impact would be a small blow out of the Earth on the impact area like the Marianas Trench. Exit point would be a lot larger. Basically a bullet through a body but on a huge scale.
The core of the Earth is a very long way down and is IIRC molten iron. The meteorite wouldn't even get close to blasting its way through 3,000 miles of basalt etc to get to it. It's not like firing a bullet through a melon.read5458 said:
I suppose, the thought of the intense gravity with the pass through would create a huge vortex of gravity
'Intense gravity'?Eric Mc said:
I misread the original post - I thought the OP was talking of an impact at near to the speed of light. At 155,000 mph it would be a big bang and do a lot of damage - but it wouldn't destroy the earth.
He was, 155k was 'normal' asteroid speeds. He was suggesting 0.5cI agree with you. Massive, likely earth destroying, explosion. Stuff traveling that quickly behaves in very non-intuitive ways. Quite a lot of it would fuse when it hits the outer atmosphere, I suspect, and the amount of energy released wold be enormous.
Compare it to the KT extinction meteor
It was 6 miles diameter, I don’t know how fast but say a fast one so 70km/s
Your meteor (lets call it read5484 as you discovered it) is 1 mile across but going 155,000 km/s
Read5485 is 1/6th radius, volume proportional to radius^3 so read5458 has 1/6^3 = 1/216 the mass, so 1/216 the damage
However its speed is massive read5458 is doing 155,000km/s vs 70km/s so 2200 times faster and energy is proportional to velocity squared (1/2mv^2) about 4900000 more energy
So overall 23000 times more energy than the KT event.
I think we would be in trouble
It was 6 miles diameter, I don’t know how fast but say a fast one so 70km/s
Your meteor (lets call it read5484 as you discovered it) is 1 mile across but going 155,000 km/s
Read5485 is 1/6th radius, volume proportional to radius^3 so read5458 has 1/6^3 = 1/216 the mass, so 1/216 the damage
However its speed is massive read5458 is doing 155,000km/s vs 70km/s so 2200 times faster and energy is proportional to velocity squared (1/2mv^2) about 4900000 more energy
So overall 23000 times more energy than the KT event.
I think we would be in trouble
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