Meteor/Asteroid Question

[CNBA3]

I am curious, between a collision between two Asteroids and a Meteor crashing into earth in terms of which of the two instances is more dangerous going at same speed (71 km/s) and same mass (11000 tons).

Is it the Asteroid collision because there is not friction or resistance in space and they get hit with the full mass of the body at such speed?

Or a Meteor crashing into earth?

 

[Crimson_Azoth]

Okay. To work this out, I assume you are asking for the kinetic energy that will be created by impact. Long story short, the two asteroids colliding releases more KE. If you want to full explanation, read on.

KE Calc 0.5 x Mass x Velocity

Meteor Impact

You've told me the velocity. Yes, I am aware that gravity's pull will affect the speed of the asteroid. But the asteroid is already moving so fast that it will only be in Earth's atmosphere for slightly more than a second, traveling at that speed.

Mass is a different story. Entering Earth's atmosphere burns off 30-60% of an entering meteor. That's a problem. High-end, the meteor now weighs 7.7 tons. Low, it now weighs 4.4 tons. Here's the KE for both ends of the spectrum.

0.5 x 4.4 tons x 71 km/s=11,090,200,000,000 or 11 trillion joules LOW END

0.5 x 7.7 tons x 71 km/s=19,407,850,000,000 or 19.4 trillion joules HIGH END

Asteroids Colliding

This one is the same as the last one, except the two are traveling towards each other, so the speed is doubled.

0.5 x 11 tons x 142 km/s=110,902,000,000,000 or almost 111 trillion joules.

That's a pretty signifcant difference. There's your answer. But, just to put this into context, the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs had an energy of about 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 or 100 sextillion joules. Neither of these two calculations even come close, I'm afraid. Gonna need to crank up the 'get f**ked humanity' numbers here.

 

[CNBA3]

Okay. To work this out, I assume you are asking for the kinetic energy that will be created by impact. Long story short, the two asteroids colliding releases more KE. If you want to full explanation, read on.

KE Calc 0.5 x Mass x Velocity

Meteor Impact

You've told me the velocity. Yes, I am aware that gravity's pull will affect the speed of the asteroid. But the asteroid is already moving so fast that it will only be in Earth's atmosphere for slightly more than a second, traveling at that speed.

Mass is a different story. Entering Earth's atmosphere burns off 30-60% of an entering meteor. That's a problem. High-end, the meteor now weighs 7.7 tons. Low, it now weighs 4.4 tons. Here's the KE for both ends of the spectrum.

0.5 x 4.4 tons x 71 km/s=11,090,200,000,000 or 11 trillion joules LOW END

0.5 x 7.7 tons x 71 km/s=19,407,850,000,000 or 19.4 trillion joules HIGH END

Asteroids Colliding

This one is the same as the last one, except the two are traveling towards each other, so the speed is doubled.

0.5 x 11 tons x 142 km/s=110,902,000,000,000 or almost 111 trillion joules.

That's a pretty signifcant difference. There's your answer. But, just to put this into context, the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs had an energy of about 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 or 100 sextillion joules. Neither of these two calculations even come close, I'm afraid. Gonna need to crank up the 'get f**ked humanity' numbers here.

Thanks, I was just being curious of the two instances which would be more dangerous or destructive to use for a feat, since space has no resistance, if someone chucked an asteroid at you at a certain speed, it would do the most damage.

 

[Crimson_Azoth]

Cool. Thanks for asking this, this was actually kinda fun to work out.