If an Asteroid the size of a car hits the earth would it cause as much distruction as 5-10 Nukes?

Answer 1

The following is from a University of Arizona site that calculates impact for bodies of any size you want to imput:
Your Inputs:
Distance from Impact: 1.00 km = 0.62 miles
Projectile Diameter: 6.00 m = 19.68 ft = 0.00 miles
Projectile Density: 1000 kg/m3
Impact Velocity: 17.00 km/s = 10.56 miles/s
Impact Angle: 45 degrees
Target Density: 2500 kg/m3
Target Type: Sedimentary Rock

Energy:
Energy before atmospheric entry: 1.63 x 1013 Joules = 0.39 x 10-2 MegaTons TNT
The average interval between impacts of this size somewhere on Earth is 1.5 years

Atmospheric Entry:
The projectile begins to breakup at an altitude of 80700 meters = 265000 ft
The projectile bursts into a cloud of fragments at an altitude of 48700 meters = 160000 ft
The residual velocity of the projectile fragments after the burst is 14.7 km/s = 9.13 miles/s
The energy of the airburst is 4.11 x 1012 Joules = 0.98 x 10-3 MegaTons.
No crater is formed, although large fragments may strike the surface.

Major Global Changes:
The Earth is not strongly disturbed by the impact and loses negligible mass.
The impact does not make a noticeable change in the Earth's rotation period or the tilt of its axis.
The impact does not shift the Earth's orbit noticeably.

Air Blast:
What does this mean?


The air blast at this location would not be noticed. (The overpressure is less than 1 Pa)

Answer 2

I think car size is too small to make an explosion that big, but it depends. Nukes come in many different sizes. The first nukes were thousands of times less powerful than the ones we have today. And Asteroids might hit at different speeds. So a really fast asteroid as small as a car might hit with as much energy as 5-10 of the smallest nukes, but even a much larger asteroid might hit with less energy than one of the largest nukes. I calculate that a 1,000 ton asteroid hitting at twice the orbital speed of Earth would produce a 1 megaton explosion. That is probably faster than any real impact would be, and 1,000 tons is much heavier than a car, but nukes up to 100 megatons have been tested in the atmosphere, before the nuclear test ban treaty forbid that.

Answer 3

It won't even reach the ground, but it will explode in the upper atmosphere because the pressure wave ahead of it and the vacuum behind it would pulverize it. Our atmosphere stops stony objects this size from hitting the ground intact. A shard of iron and nickle would likely explode much closer to the ground, but in the end nothing but small fragments will reach the ground. Objects this size would blow apart with the force of a low-yield nuclear warhead, but they would do this far too high up to do any damage on the ground, except for what falling rocks would do to buildings or cars. For an object to cause major destruction on the ground, you need a chunk of nickle and iron at least some 30 to 40 yards across, or a somewhat bigger slab of stone. One of those would either cause a titanic air burst like the one that wiped out 1,300 square miles of Tunguska in 1908, or strike the ground and blast out a crater like Meteor Crater in Arizona. An event like this would wipe out a large city and kill everyone in it.

Answer 4

Yesterday, Sept. 5th around 0100 UT, tiny asteroid 2007 RS1 flew past Earth only 48,000 miles (0.2 lunar distances) away. There was never any danger from this near miss. Even if the 3-meter wide space rock had hit Earth, it would have disintegrated in the atmosphere, causing little to no damage at ground level. It would, however, make a very nice fireball. Maybe next time.

Answer 5

Depends on the size of the car, the speed and the size of the nukes.

Eugene Shoemaker of the U.S. Geological Survey came up with an estimate of the rate of Earth impacts by asteroids, and suggested that an event about the size of the nuclear weapon that destroyed Hiroshima occurs about once a year. Such events would seem to be spectacularly obvious, but they generally go unnoticed for a number of reasons: the majority of the Earth's surface is covered by water; a good portion of the land surface is uninhabited; and the explosions generally occur at relatively high altitude, resulting in a huge flash and thunderclap but no real damage.

Answer 6

I'm not an expert, but I believe the answer is no. Even if it's that size when it reaches the ground, it would just cause a loud bang and a crater. Wouldn't want it to drop on my house or shopping mall, though.

Answer 7

no.it doesnt have any impact with earth but you can see a beautiful meteor flash.

Answer 8

No but Chuck Norris could.

Answer 9

Much more.