Cool art. Not sure why the asteroid is covered in lava, or why the ejecta first moves on parabolic trajectories but then appears to stop.
By my calculations a 500 km diameter asteroid moving at the escape velocity of the Earth (it can't impact at less than this speed), with the density of water, has about 3E28 Joules of energy. According to the venerable Boom Table (http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/usefultables.php#id--The_Boom_Table) that's enough to melt the crust. The damage shown here is an understatement : there won't be any ruined cities or even anything left that resembles the current continents. There will just be a smooth, glowing sea of slowly-cooling lava.
#GiantMeteor2020
Originally shared by Joe Carter
What if ...an asteroid with a diameter of 500 km hit the Pacific Ocean? The impact would peel 10 km of crust off the surface. The shockwave would travel at hypersonic speeds with debris blasted into low Earth orbit, which would return to destroy the rest of the surface of the Earth as the firestorm encircled the planet, vaporizing all life in its path. Within a day, the surface of the Earth would be uninhabitable. The evidence shows that this has happened at least six times in Earth's history. and... what if it all happened to the music of Pink Floyd "The Great Gig in the Sky".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU1QPtOZQZU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU1QPtOZQZU
And a lot of vapor and dust, I guess.
ReplyDeleteThe next time it happens, of course it will happen to the music of Pink Floyd "The Great Gig in the Sky". Then the music will be gone.
ReplyDeleteColonies on mars would be a great backup plan. And then recolonize Earth after it has cooled down. We would have new mineral deposits everywhere.
ReplyDeleteHow long would it take to cool down?
About a century by my quick and dirty reckoning :
ReplyDeletehttp://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/thermo/cootime.html
I assumed the mass of the crust is 2.5E22 kg, that the crust is mainly basalt with an emissivity of 0.72, and initial temperature of 1300 K and a final temperature of 300 K. For the particle number I used the molar mass of silicon dioxide since that's most of what basalt is made of. All these numbers are found on the internet.
Basalt melts really low doesn't it? I should try making something out of that or granite. I bet it's lumpy tho.
ReplyDeleteHow much oomph is needed to blow the oceans (vapor) out of orbit?
ReplyDeleteThat too can be found in the Boom Table. Apparently it's 1E29 Joules.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to need more dynamite ...
ReplyDelete