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How would you destroy a planet? (1 Viewer)

Ike

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Jan 14, 2000
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Jack,

If something the size of the moon slammed into the earth, wouldn't it throw it off of orbit, possible too close to the sun at a rapid rate, thus burning us up?
 

Danny R

Supporting Actor
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May 23, 2000
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Heh, well, ok, guess you have to store enough to make a difference in one detonation. It's just a trifle detail, I'm sure!
I think if you can make certain that the antimatter in question has an electrical charge, then you can store it in a vacuum using magnetic fields. This should work in theory... hate to be the guy who actually does it when the power goes out. ;)
 
Joined
Mar 8, 1999
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Ike,
It depends on whether you are talking about the long run or the short run and whether you really mean "the Moon" or just "something as big as the moon". In the long run (more than a few billion years for our solar system), no planets probably have stable orbits, so anything could potentialy ultimately contribute to the Earth falling into the sun or flying away into interstellar space.
In the shorter run, the Moon and the Earth can be thought of as a single thing in orbit around the Sun but made of two parts. If the Moon's orbit was decaying (actually, the opposite is true) and it "fell" into the Earth, it would be the equivalent of the two parts of that single thing just getting closer together, but still remaining in a pretty stable orbit around the sun.
Now, if we are talking about something the size of the moon travelling through interstellar space, say, orbiting the galactic center just a little slower or faster than our solar system, yeah, it could give the Earth a pretty good whack. Anything from nudging it out of orbit with a close pass to vaporizing it in place.
Come to think of it, it could be out there now, just waiting for that point of intersection to occur. It would be coming so fast, we'd never see it... :D
Hey, can I bring my induce-a-nearby-star-to-go-supernova-machine with me to this moon base?
-Robert
 

Scott Strang

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You're probably right about the happy ending thing. Alien didn't have one and it never really was that popular.
 

Scott Strang

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Well guys, 'yall have opened up a great new world of Sci-Fi entertainment for me. Yesterday, as a result of reading the posts about "Forge of God" and "Anvil of Stars", I headed for BAM and bought "Anvil of Stars". They didn't have FOG but let me tell ya, AOS is superb. It's been a while since I had a hard time putting down a book.
My late father was an avid sci-fi fan and regularly bought sci-fi novels. He would've loved this book.
Now off to Amazon to buy the current print of FOG.
You guys are always full of good suggestions, unlike me who is full of, uhh, just ask my wife. :D
 

Jack Briggs

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Ike:

A catastrophe such as you descibe would certainly have the potential for altering this planet's orbit--possibly providing enough energy to propel it into another orbit that takes it dangerously closer to the Sun. But angular momentum would prevent it from spiraling into the Sun itself.

When the Mars-sized planet slammed into the first-generation Earth, it disgorged a huge amount of material that ended up in orbit. In a remarkably short amount of time, that material accreted into what is now the Moon--which orbited Earth originally just a few thousand miles away. (To this day, the Moon's orbit is receding from Earth on the order of an inch or so a year. We're losing our natural satellite, in other words.)

My point was that even though the original Earth was more massive than the present planet, a Mars-sized object slamming into it didn't result in the total breakup of our planet.

So, destroying a planet is a formidable task indeed!

JB
 

Jeff Kleist

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That's the one thing I never understand, why are half the people trying to destroy the Earth living on it? Wouldn't it be a lot safer to build yourself a little space colony first?
 

Tanya_G

Auditioning
Joined
May 25, 2001
Messages
2
Jack:

Sometime ago (1-2 years), I heard that the Moon was not created from a collision. IIRC, that program used evidence of the Moon's composition vs. the Earth's composition. However, I agree that an impact may not be enough.
 

DaveF

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Plan D

1) Attract global band of cow farmers

2) Have them place cows on taco-rich diet

3) Increased methane production accelerates global-warming, destroying all life (except cockroaches).

More seriously, a recent book by Clive Cussler employed the notion of "slicing" a piece of the artic ice-shelf off. When it drifts from the pole, it causes sufficient wobble in the earth's rotation, to induce a rotational precession. The earth tilts about 20° form where it was, the polar ice-caps melt, climates change, most all life is destroyed, etc.
 

Jack Briggs

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First, Tanya, welcome to HTF. As for what you are saying, even though astronomers for the most part subscribe to the impact theory of the Moon's origin, they will admit that the kinks are not entirely ironed out. That the Moon comes from this planet, though, seems pretty certain: the lunar samples brought back from the six successful Apollo missions that landed there are composed mainly of material that resembles Earth's mantle. Project Apollo upset everyone's ideas as to the formation of the Earth/Moon system. JB
 

Steve Enemark

Second Unit
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Jun 30, 1997
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482
Wait a sec, this is a lot easier than we're making it out to be! Just get everybody on one side of the planet to all jump up in the air at the exact same time. The resulting shock will displace the Earth from its orbit and either send us careening into the sun or interstellar space.
Until Bruce Willis/Will Smith reverses the effect with a big bomb or computer virus or whatever... :D
 

BrianW

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I had a college roommate who's sneezes could change the weather. I always thought that it was simply due to the resulting atmospheric disturbances, but thanks to Steve's remark, I realize that I can't discount the possibility of orbital perturbation.
 

Max Leung

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Hmmm, we could do what Steve suggests right now...the population of North and South America is much much smaller than in the rest of the continents. I'm sure it would be easy to convince the people across the ponds to jump...tasteless and/or mildly offensive suggestion follows:

With the latest fashion to bash people across both sides of the ponds, just tell them that we absolutely do not want them to jump at precisely the same moment on this day. Really, don't do it folks! No please please don't jump all at once! If you do then we won't get our MTV! (Boom! Earth flies into the sun hehe)


Anyhow, hope you find the FoG, Scott! It's a neat little book.

[edited slightly to tone down the spoiler message hehe]
 

John Thomas

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Mar 23, 2000
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Perhaps we should deviate from the kinetic energy theories and go towards a more biochemical process? Of course, nothing is better to destroy rock than brute force. Hmm..

perhaps a first wave of biological/chemical breakdown complimented by massive force?

What I'm thinking is perhaps a way to raise the temperature of the core excessively accompanied by halting rotation of the earth to decrease the gravitational pull. This could theoretically break the earth apart, like scattering atoms when energy is applied.

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
 

Kevin P

Screenwriter
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Jan 18, 1999
Messages
1,439
What I'm thinking is perhaps a way to raise the temperature of the core excessively accompanied by halting rotation of the earth to decrease the gravitational pull. This could theoretically break the earth apart, like scattering atoms when energy is applied.
Actually, you'd have to speed up the earth's rotation, so the centrifugal "force" would cause the earth to bulge out at the equator and (if spinning fast enough) fly apart. I would expect you'd need to get it whirling pretty fast though. I wonder if someone standing at the north pole would get dizzy. :)
KJP
 

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