Death Kill
Caldari
direkte
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Posted - 2007.09.30 09:35:00 -
[2]
 Originally by: Darwinia
Just to derail this discussion a bit. The whole 'splitting one dangerous object into many smaller dangerous one is bad' argument is hogwash. Splitting an incoming object into many smaller would have several advantages. While the affected area of impact would be larger, far more of it would burn in the atmosphere and the whole impact would be distributed over a larger area, so there is less chance of it triggering fault lines and rising minerals into the atmosphere to create acid rain. In case of an ocean impact, the fragments have far less chance of punching trough the ocean bed and the interference from several impacts is likely to reduce tsunamis.
No. The smaller pieces will also be radioactive. And the 'smaller' pieces wont be small enough for them to burn up in the atmosphere either.
see what a 'small' asteroid/comet can do
The Tunguska event, sometimes called the Tunguska explosion, was a massive explosion that occurred near the Podkamennaya (Under Rock) Tunguska River in what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai of Russia, between 7:00 and 8:00 AM on June 30, 1908.
The explosion was most likely caused by the air burst of a large meteoroid or comet fragment at an altitude of 5 to 10 kilometers (3û6 mi) above Earth's surface. Different studies[1] yielded varying estimates for the meteor's size, including 60 meters[2], 90 to 190 meters[3] and up to 1200 meters in diameter[4].
Although the meteor or comet is considered to have burst prior to hitting the surface, this event is still referred to as an impact event. The energy of the blast was estimated to be between 10 and 20 megatons[5] of TNT ù 1,000 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The explosion felled an estimated 80 million trees over 2,150 square kilometers (830 sq mi). It is estimated to have measured 5.0 on the Richter scale.
The Tunguska event is the largest impact event in recent history. An explosion of this magnitude had the potential to devastate large metropolitan areas had it occurred over a large city. This possibility has helped to spark discussion of ways to potentially stop large asteroids or comets from hitting Earth.
Good luck trying to blow up a large asteroid or comet. Chances are also that the ateroids own gravity will make it reassemble itself.
Call to arms!!! |