Meteor the size of Texas

[MaltoreseFalcon]

follow the link for a how to:

h t t p : / / everything2 . com/title/How+to+destroy+the+Earth

A texas sized asteroid would almost certainly remove life from the earth - I reckon the only things with any realistic chance of survival would subterranean single celled organisms - algae, archaebacteria, that sort of thing.

[Writhes]

I think we can handle a meteor the size of Texas.

With our advanced technology we should have weapons capable of destroying it, or at least break it up into smaller pieces.

That might just make the situation worse... Then we'll just blow up the smaller pieces.

That's why I voted: No.

The strategy would not be to destroy a meteor, but rather to redirect. Breaking a large meteor into pieces would cause way more devastation than the large one would. Though if actually the size of texas it wouldn't really matter what you did either way we're screwed.

[Idontlikeyou]

You might want to check out:
National Geographic: Ancient Asteroid Apocalypse

While it wont wipe Earth out, it will pretty much mean disaster for 90% of all living organisms on the land.

[Topperharly]

Even inpact with something the size of Mars didnt vapourize Earth, it created moon though, a little rock like the size of Texas wouldn't do that either.

what are you talking about? eath never hit something like the mars. earth hit a planet who was a smaller, and the earth was still a magma planet , who was on the same elliptic curve. i think it was about 4-4.5 billion years aggo, earth would had been nearly destoryed.

[Dundebuns]

Only has to be a few KM across to cause an extinction event. You also need to be concerned about its speed too

[Deleted]

what are you talking about? eath never hit something like the mars. earth hit a planet how was a smaller, and the earth was still a magma planet, how was on the same elliptic curve. i think it was about 4-4.5 billion years aggo, moon and earth would have been nearly destoryed back then.

Earth is a magma planet now too.. only the thin crust is solid. But yea, it did collide with a planet the size of Mars in it's early days. There was no moon then, the Moon was created with that impact from the debris that flew into orbit. An asteroid, the size of Texas would just leave a big crater and kill most life on surface but not all, micro organisms would survive but wouldn't threaten the Earth otherwise at all.

[smrtolet]

It wont. It would most likely kill most larger lifeforms of earth excluding humans in bunkers and possible other stuff, life in deep oceans etc. But it will not make every organism on earth extinct. Single cell organisms will survive and when "the dust settles" begin anew.

Probably not. Because such a large asteroid would completely destroy the earths surface, boil the oceans from both the impact heat and the released molten material below the crust, and at that temperatures nothing would survive.

[Deleted]

There would probably not be much left of the earth if a meteor of that size would hit it. Though it is unlikely such a big one would hit us... a 10km one would be enough to kill us

[unkn0wnerr0r]

Oh, god. that movie is quite possibly the single most hated thing in all of Hollywood by physicists. I think they even hate it more than 2012.

It isn't just physicists. It's any scientist really. It's even science students. We all hate it.

I could go into a 5 page tirade about how wrong that movie was, but what's the point. The people that would care, already know. The people that don't know would just skip it.

[Topperharly]

Earth is a magma planet now too.. only the thin crust is solid. But yea, it did collide with a planet the size of Mars in it's early days. There was no moon then, the Moon was created with that impact from the debris that flew into orbit. An asteroid, the size of Texas would just leave a big crater and kill most life on surface but not all, micro organisms would survive but wouldn't threaten the Earth otherwise at all.

i know that, but back then earth had no surface, it was a magma surface and earth was almost, destroyed by the impact. but we are talking about an object, with millions of tonnes of weight. http://www.purdue.edu/impactearth here can you see what would happen, i posted it on page 4 or 5...^^

[Deleted]

There would probably not be much left of the earth if a meteor of that size would hit it. Though it is unlikely such a big one would hit us... a 10km one would be enough to kill us

A 10km one would kill most bigger lifeforms but not humans:P It's not the impact that kills then but the "nuclear" winter that follows.

[Oweena]

You need to remember also depending upon the composition of the asteroid and speed and everythin else it's highly possible for an asteroid the size of a house to burn up entering the atmosphere.. and be left with only the size of a small rock

[Lumineus]

lol, a meteor the size of texas ain't gonna disintegrate, go back to school

Well, I'd say the likelihood of an asteroid that size hitting at anything approaching a suitable re-entry angle is infinitesimally small. Likely the vast majority of the mass would be sheared off and skip off the atmosphere, probably being flung towards the sun. Unfortunately if the asteroid was originally the size of Texas, the resulting meteor would probably still be as big as, say, Nebraska. So, we would still be doomed.

Fortunately, we don't need to worry about any of that because all life will have probably been destroyed centuries if not eons beforehand when Yellowstone finally goes Verneshot and causes similar impact damage while simultaneously poisoning the entire atmosphere.

[Makamoka]

Considering the fact that any reasonably well built bunker would shield you from pretty much any kind of impact unless it's a direct hit on the bunker and the fact that IF a meteor of that size was to hit earth, we would know years in advance. This means that a LOT of people would be sitting in comfortable little bunkers all over the earth, probably on the side of the earth the meteor is NOT going to hit.

People would survive, no question about it.

You know, the shockwave would probably go around 1kilometer down and tear everything up, and then the earth would burn for a few hundred or thousand years So Earth would lose it's ability to hold on life. So IF someone would survive they would die a few hours after anyway Don't be an optimist when it comes to stuff like this, we would die and that's the truth.

[drukai]

It isn't just physicists. It's any scientist really. It's even science students. We all hate it.

I could go into a 5 page tirade about how wrong that movie was, but what's the point. The people that would care, already know. The people that don't know would just skip it.

What about the people that already know, but just don't care?

[rantus]

It's very unlikely that it would whipe out every living organism, bacterias and one celled organisms have been proven to be very tough. As far as humans and "animals" goes, the answer is yes.

The size of Texas though. The largest one that's hit so far is like 10 miles. The whole planet might even break apart.

Although, the moon was created when a mars-sized asteroid hit very early in earth's history, the planet didn't get destroyed but did lose a lot of mass, which formed into the moon.

[Dashield28]

Yes it would. It would not destroy the earth or even damage it severely but all life would be wiped out. Volcanic activity would also increase. Theoretically, it would take a planet the size of Venus to completely obliterate earth. Mars hitting the earth would turn it into a molten ball but the general integrity and content of earth would survive. Mars is only about 10% mass whereas Venus is 81% the mass of earth.

The meteor that wiped out teh dinosaurs (about 70% of life on earth) was only 6 miles in diamter and created a crater 110 miles in diameter.

The devastation created by a meteor the size of Texas would be, well total. No where to hide no where to run. Bunkers will not help Within hours fires would sweep across the globe because of the molten rock debris falling down from the impact. Over the next few days, ash, dirt and smoke would cloud the atmosphere and remain there for years. A global winter would insue lasting possibly thousands of years. So on and so forth.

From the known Near Earth Objects that pose a threat is one called Apophis. It is about a quarter of a mile wide and in 2026 it will pass so close to the earth that it will be closer than some of our satelites. Also it has a tiny chance of being slightly deflected by earths gravity that in 2035 as it comes back around it can hit the earth. This one would cause continental devastation and the estimate is that about 80% of human kind would die. Mostly in third world countries.

---------- Post added 2011-02-02 at 02:22 PM ----------

The size of Texas though. The largest one that's hit so far is like 10 miles. The whole planet might even break apart.

No, the planet would definitely not break apart. Size is one thing mass is another.

Picture this. Take a bowling ball and a baloon of the same size. Throw the balloon at the bowling ball.. Nothing will happen.

Take a baseball, throw it at the bowling ball, you might make it move.. but ball stays together.

Take another bowling ball of the same size and launch it at that bowling ball at 35000 miles per second. All you will see is a cloud of dust.

DENSITY is the key. A 1000 miles asteroid will damage the earth, cause a hella ton of rock to be blasted into space, damage the crust, crack it even, but will definitely not shatter earth.

By comparison, Mars is only 10% of earths mass. If it crashes into earth, earth will win, it will NOT break apart.
Venus on the other hand which is 81% of earth's mass would cause both planets to disntegrate.

Although, the moon was created when a mars-sized asteroid hit very early in earth's history, the planet didn't get destroyed but did lose a lot of mass, which formed into the moon.

It was not an asteroid that hit earth to form our moon. It was a fellow planet that was formed along with earth on an intersecting orbit. It is believed that there were many more plaents in our system than there are now. A lot of them were either shot out of our system or hit other planets. Theia (the planet you are talking about) hit Earth at an angle giving it its spin, also disintegrating on inpact. A lot of earth material was blasted out from earth. This formed a giant ring of debris around earth which then fell into earth and some of it formed our moon. Theia was about the size of Mars. Theia also helped earth create a molten core and tectonice plate activity, this would not have been possible otherwise.

[Viertel]

Whether or not we would survive said meteor and it's impacts would be a moot point. The REAL question you should ask when a meteor impact is a possibility is...

"Are there any Cetras left to sacrifice?"

[Darnash]

There are some extremophiles(?) that would survive, but life as we know it would be obliterated. Over a few millennia, life would rebuild, but intelligent life wouldnt be seen again for millions and millions of years.

[Modibybob]

I bet most of the people here have absolutely no idea how incredibly large the state of Texas is. (almost 269,000 sq mi)