What size of meteor would it take to vaporize the Earth's atmosphere upon impact???

Question

What might this rock look like coming in if you where close and below....Tom Science 4

Will then the oxygen in the air ignite?That is what I ment to say....

Answer 1

A meteor of about 1 mile in length might be sufficient to destroy life but the atmosphere would not vaporize.Most of the atmosphere consists of nitrogen which is not combustible (oxygen only supports combustion) and the rare gases such as helium are non-flammable. The impact velocity would be important as it could shift both the orbit of the earth or its rotation. Many of the meteors are fragments from planet collisions and could be pitted, and resemble the moon...they too are showered with dust and small fragments. It may be burning as it enters the atmosphere (depending on angle of approach) but probably glowing red hot and pieces breaking away as they incinerate. The impact would be felt in virtually all countries and tsunamis would flood most island nations. Earthquakes would be generated as the plates shifted from the impact and a massive dust cloud would cover the earth and blot out the sun perhaps for years, causing another ice age.

Answer 2

Otis F is right. The atmosphere is already vaporized. Vaporized means turned into a gas, and the atmosphere is already a gas.

So perhaps you mean "destroy" or some other word that implies total ruin or removal or something. In that case I say no asteroid that big is ever going to hit. Damage the atmosphere, yes, totally destroy or remove, no.

Answer 3

He desires to have it shown that that's a meteorite, and not in basic terms a random rock. It in basic terms expenses approximately $20 or so. lots of the internet pages under have examples of the style of pictures he could take.

Answer 4

size ? but it wouldn't matter since anything with enough mass to vaporize the ENTIRE atmosphere would crack the planet

and you wouldn't see it coming in ( that's Hollywood ) the speeds involved would be immense and the second it touched the upper atmosphere you would have the equivalent of a LARGE atomic bomb - the shock wave and blast effect is all you would see ( for a very short time )

Answer 5

The Earth's atmosphere is pretty much vapor already, isn't it?

Answer 6

Umm... I don't know how to tell you this, but umm...

The Earth's atmosphere is already vapor. That's why it is an atmosphere. Vapor = Gas.

Answer 7

well uh you can't vaporize vapor..... vapor=gas=no vaporizing sorry to say that but yeah.....

Answer 8

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteor
hope this can help you