Posted on 03/14/2018 6:18:52 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Researchers in Russia have modeled the destruction of dangerous space rocks in the lab, using tiny asteroid replicas and laser blasts to mimic the effect of nuclear warheads.
The team determined, among other things, that it would probably take a 3-megaton nuclear bomb to obliterate a 650-foot-wide (200 meters) stony asteroid. And any nuke's destructive power would be increased by exploding it inside a crater or cavity within the space rock, the researchers found.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
There are plenty of explosives that don’t need oxygen to work, but nuclear devices in particular do not rely on oxidation for the explosion. Their power comes from the energy contained in the particle bonds of the atoms of their payload.
Yes. Explosives contain highly concentrated oxygen. Gunpowder, for example, is basically charcoal and potassium nitrate. Potassium nitrate breaks down when heated, releasing most of its oxygen, which combines with carbon in the charcoal component, releasing more heat which causes more potassium nitrate to break down . . .
The US has already detonated an A-bomb in space, iirc.
Well, the tested a 100 MT weapon some time ago, so why take a chance, go for the gusto.
Better to blast it into smithereens...
A single smithereen cannot exist outside the laboratory (unless you count individual members of the eponymously named band, that is.)
The Tsar Bomba bomb was 50 megatons.
Since there is no atmosphere surrounding the asteroid to impart a shock wave, contact will be required. The fireball will vaporize what it contacts and the shock wave through the remaining solid part should fragment the rest.
But then, I’m not a scientist. I didn’t even stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night...
An alternative might be a small lander with a rocket motor attached which can be fired to nudge the asteroid into a “safe” trajectory. Probably cheaper, too.
Wrong. The first stage is HE, that when detonated, provides the energy to force the nuclear material to go nuclear.
“maybe just have Chuck Norris roundhouse kick it back?”
Now let’s give the asteroid at least a little chance.
I was partially responding to another post. What you say is correct, and the HE plays no role in the damaging secondary nuclear blast.
Send the leaders of the following to it and tell them it is theirs to govern. It will fall apart shortly thereafter.
Pick one:
South Africa
California
Baltimore
Venezuela
Chicago
Push it into the sun.
Recent progress in Planetary Astronomy indicates that a great many smaller asteroids (< 15 km) are mere piles of rubble coated with dust ("regolith"), barely held together by incredibly weak gravitational forces. This makes "nudging" such a celestial body much more compliated.
Regards,
I don’t recall ever seeing Stallone in space.
Maybe it’s time...
Yup.
I understand the whole theory of blowing it up, but it seems to me that a surface detonation would produce a directional force/thrust and cause a change in trajectory. Obviously the location of the surface blast would need to be located to push it in the desired direction.
Most high order explosives don’t require oxygen to detonate, because they are not combusting, they are releasing energy when their unstable molecular bonds are breaking down.
However, the primary force of an explosive is transmitted in a shock wave, which wouldn’t do much in a vacuum without an atmosphere, because the wave wouldn’t propagate. A shaped charge strapped directly to the asteroid to force the shock wave to travel through the solid material of the asteroid would probably work though.
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