How much explosive power does it require to blast the moon into many fragments?

Question

is that even possible in a practical sense?

Answer 1

The gravitational binding energy of a spherical mass of uniform density is given by:

U = -(3 G M^2)/(5 r)

where G is the universal gravitational constant, M is the mass and r is the radius.

G = 6.67428 x 10^-11 m^3 kg^-1 s^-2

for Earth's Moon

M = 7.3477 x 10^22 kg
r = 1.7371 x 10^6 m (mean radius)

Substituting these values gives U = -1.25 x 10^29 J.
(formally the units are kg m^2 s^-2 but this is equivalent to J)

Blasting the Moon to pieces is the same as overcoming the binding energy. (Well if you want things to fly apart violently then you have to put in more than the binding energy but this will suffice.)

Thus we need 1.25 x 10^29 J to blow the Moon apart.

A megaton of TNT is 4.184 x 10^15 J, so we require 3 x 10^13 megatons of TNT or 30 trillion megatons.

Answer 2

If you have watched Star Wars, you know

"That's no moon, that's a space station!"

If the Rebels could blow up a whole Moon-sized space station made of metal, why isn't blowing up the Moon feasible?

Still, the Rebels only hit the main core reactor thing to initiate a chain explosion.

Anyway you need a whole lot of firepower to wreck the whole Moon. I suppose if you send all the nuclear weapons on Earth, it should be possible.

Answer 3

Damn terrorists ☺
OTOH, it might be quite pretty to have 'rings' around the Earth similar to the ones around Saturn. But that's assuming that the race survived all of the large fragments which would certainly impact the Earth (like the one that whacked the Dinosaurs some 65 million years ago).

Soug

Answer 4

oh, wow! I remember this cheesy TV show where there was this HUGE explosion on the moon and instead of blowing it into chunks it blasted out of orbit and the moon bases dudes went traveling thru space sorta like the Jupiter 2 from "Lost in Space".

what was the question, again?

Answer 5

If you want an exact answer you need to make an exact question. What is fragments? Do u want the moon into fragments of max x kg? To partition the moon you only need a very small power, then it will partition into one very big parts and several small parts.

Answer 6

I agree with Doug. you wouldn't be interested in finding out the answer unless you were interested in wiping the human race off the face of the planet.

peace
= )

Answer 7

I'm sure it could be possible, but imagine the impact it would have on the earth...

Answer 8

it just need a low pressure concentration in the core or 2 nuclear bombs or an asteroid or a comet and may a volcanic eruption

Answer 9

Quite a lot and I doubt it.

Answer 10

4327761.23234 trillion metric tonnes of hydroxyfied TNT . . . . .
try it out it will surely solve ur problem !