It seems like we would be able to move or destroy a large body if we landed several large atomic warheads on a 3 mile wide comet. I think that if we landed them all on one side of the comet and detonated them it should be like squezing a watermellon seed just make sure we do it in the right durection.any way shouldnt this work?
2007-09-30 16:06:28 · 5 answers · asked by chingow 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Scientists are now finding a way to destroy any asteroid with a bomb only the size of a washing machine. It would explode and make the asteroid go totally of course and explode into small pieces.
2007-09-30 17:42:49 · answer #1 · answered by Jang wook 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
No, it would not be like squeezing a watermelon seed. It would be more like trying to stop a fastball pitch which is already halfway from the mound to home plate by throwing a firecracker at it.
Explosions are really inefficient methods for moving something sideways. Nuclear weapons do produce some impressive blast waves, but that's only because the intense heat causes the air near the explosion to expand. In space there's no air, so no blast wave. A nuclear weapon would probably melt the side of the asteroid but not change its trajectory much at all.
Even if you had a rocket engine you could attach to the side of the comet and push it sideways, DELIVERING it would be a feat of aerospace engineering which makes a trip to Mars look easy.
Consider this: a car is rolling down a hill towards your house and you have to stop it before it hits your front door. Luckily you have a bomb and a bicycle. So you put the bomb into a backpack, pedal up the hill to where the car is rolling, put on your brakes, turn around and pedal back TOWARD the house, trying to match speeds with the rolling car, place the backpack with the bomb in it on the hood of the car without crashing your bicycle, and then pedal away before the bomb goes off, hoping that the backpack doesn't slide off the hood. And you have to do it all in 30 seconds. Good Luck.
2007-10-01 02:29:19 · answer #2 · answered by dogwood_lock 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It would, but only if the object was a single block of rock (called a monolith).
If it was just basically a pile of rocks held together by gravity, then all the warheads would do would be to break the rock pile up - and then we'd have thousands of meteors striking Earth. And while many would burn up in the atmosphere, many more would make it to the surface and it would be like living in a shooting gallery - they would land over the entire planet and cause a lot of damage.
Certainly a better situation than one big rock hitting us, but still not a good situation.
2007-09-30 23:13:57 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
the answer is an anti matter warhead which i believe will be possible to build in a few more decades or years
it all depends on the progress of nuclear fusion technology, an anti matter war head will evaporate the comet or asteroid out of existence :), of course a reactor accident like Chernobyl will annihilate life on earth but hey lets stay optimistic :P
2007-10-01 02:42:24 · answer #4 · answered by tarek c 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Many ways have been proposed to prevent such an asteroid from hitting Earth, including large nuclear explosions. But none of them have been tried, so nobody can be sure they will work.
2007-09-30 23:21:59 · answer #5 · answered by campbelp2002 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋