2007-07-21 13:54:59 · 13 answers · asked by raijingenki 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
the more pressing issue on this question is what the area that the meteor is taking up. the only way to wipe out the earth's population is the dust from the crater that the meteor will create. 14989622900 is the amount of force that would be created by this meteor going at the speed of light. basically that is the only chance of this being possible is the meteor going the speed of light.
2007-07-23 16:28:28 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
WAY faster than any real meteor. A good fraction of the speed of light. I cannot give an exact answer because we don't know for sure how much damage to the ecosystem would be needed to wipe out the population, but MUCH bigger meteors have hit in the last 100 years and we hardly noticed.
2007-07-21 14:32:29 · answer #2 · answered by campbelp2002 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It would have to be going extremely fast. It would vaporize upon contact with the Earth's atmosphere, so you'd be relying on dissipating an extremely large amount of energy in the atmosphere. This would be a pretty inefficient way of killing people (as compared to an impact throwing dust into the air and killing all the plants, which is quite effective).
I would bet than a 50-pound meteor travelling at 99.999999% the speed of light would do some serious damage. Even then, I'm not sure it would kill all humans on Earth.
2007-07-21 14:06:00 · answer #3 · answered by lithiumdeuteride 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Too fast.
A 50 lb meteor wouldn't have enough weight or volume to more damage than over a few meters. Cars have been hit with meteors half that size and survived, okay it needed a good deal of body work.
Now if you meant 50 ton then we would have a problem. Then the speed wouldn't really matter, once it entered Earth's gravity well the standard acceleration due to gravity of 9.8 m/sec would be enough to destroy the planet.
2007-07-21 14:04:51 · answer #4 · answered by Dan S 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No matter how fast it was traveling, a 50-pound meteor couldn't even come close to wiping out Earth's population. Because of air resistance, few meteors exceed about 40,000 mph unless they're truly huge objects.
2007-07-21 14:02:40 · answer #5 · answered by Chug-a-Lug 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Closer to the speed of light than the maximum speed any known mechanism could possibly accelerate a macroscopic object to...
Such an object with a Lorentz factor of 2 would release about 1.8*10^18 J of kinetic energy upon impact (450 megatons - give or take)
Astronomers have observed Lorentz factors of up to 400 for gamma ray burst ejecta. While I can't imagine a mechanism capable of accelerating a 50lb glob of condensed matter to that kind of speed...if one did exist it could still only deliver 90,000 megatons equivalent or so...
...about 1/1000th the energy released by the impactor associated with the KT boundary.
Certainly enough to blow the bejesus out of, say, a state...not nearly enough to extinguish life on a global scale. Also, remember that the global kill mechanisms most commonly pointed to at the KT boundary include flash fires caused by ballistic reentry of ejecta and reduced sunlight due to soot and ejecta. Although highy *energetic*, a 50lb impactor - even moving at the speed described - would not have the *momentum* to eject significant amounts of mass into the atmosphere or into space.
I think you'd need something like the speed of a cosmic ray.
2007-07-21 18:11:08 · answer #6 · answered by Ethan 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A 50 lb. meteor would break down in earth's atmosphere and scatter harmlessly at any speed. Sorry! No destruction.
2007-07-21 14:01:13 · answer #7 · answered by nim 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Gee, I wanted to answer that question but everyone beat me to it. Shucks!
2007-07-22 02:33:32 · answer #8 · answered by Billy Butthead 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
your 'meteor' is too small...sorry...
2007-07-21 18:13:32 · answer #9 · answered by sss08 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
what are you planning?
2007-07-21 13:58:45 · answer #10 · answered by HitMan Harry 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋