20 replies to this topic

[glenndo4000]

lol, u got it in one!

[ReviewDude]

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My guess is that people will stop around the same time that people stop resurrecting threads that have been dead for 3 months.

It's still a valid topic, but it didn't need necroing with the phrase 'uuuuuuuhhhhhhh...'. Anyway, I think if something is on course to kill us all in 2012 (which it isn't) but we'll have some kind of technology to nuke it, well, I say 'we', I won't help... At least we're safe.

[Raptor]

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but we'll have some kind of technology to nuke it,

(Not directed at you, just an easy quote to...quote.)
What would be the effect of Nuclear weapons being used in space? I mean if they rely on an atomic chain reaction to release energy, and space is almost a vacuum, the explosion would be almost non-existant, right?

[Waspie_Dwarf]

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(Not directed at you, just an easy quote to...quote.)
What would be the effect of Nuclear weapons being used in space? I mean if they rely on an atomic chain reaction to release energy, and space is almost a vacuum, the explosion would be almost non-existant, right?

Actually the energy of explosion would be the same as in an atmosphere. The chain reaction occurs in the fissile material (the uranium or the plutonium) and the mass of this would be the same.

There would be no air blast to push against the asteroid (there being no air) but if it was exploded on the surface it would leve the same size crater as on earth.

However the theory behind using nuclear weapons against asteroids is not so much to destroy them but to deflect them. The weapon is detonated not on the surface of the asteroid but at a distance away. The intense heat and other radition caused by the nuclear explosion vapourises some of the asteroids surface. As this vapour vents into space it works like a rocket thruster pushing the asteroid into a slightly different orbit and so, hopefully, it misses the earth.

There are big dangers in this method. It now seems that some asteroids are loose collections of debris rather than a single large object. Using nuclear weapons against such a conglomeration may have no effect at all. Alternatively it could cause the asteroid to break into many peaces causing multiple impacts on the earth and actually making the situation worse.

Edited by Waspie_Dwarf, 02 September 2006 - 11:51 PM.

[Raptor]

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Actually the energy of explosion would be the same as in an atmosphere. The chain reaction occurs in the fissile material (the uranium or the plutonium) an the mass of this would be the same.

I see. I was under the impression that the fissile material was just used to begin a chain reaction which then continued to take place among atmospheric gases (now that I think about it, the atomic mass of the gases present in our atmosphere are far too small for that to make any sense).

Thanks.

[ReviewDude]

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Actually the energy of explosion would be the same as in an atmosphere. The chain reaction occurs in the fissile material (the uranium or the plutonium) an the mass of this would be the same.

There would be know air blast to push against the asteroid (there being no air) but if it was exploded on the surface it would leve the same size crater as on earth.

However the theory behind using nuclear weapons against asteroids is not so much to destroy them but to deflect them. The weapon is detonated not on the surface of the asteroid but at a distance away. The intense heat and other radition caused by the nuclear explosion vapourises some of the asteroids surface. As this vapour vents into space it works like a rocket thruster pushing the asteroid into a slightly different orbit and so, hopefully, it misses the earth.

There are big dangers in this method. It now seems that some asteroids are loose collections of debris rather than a single large object. Using nuclear weapons against such a conglomeration may have no effect at all. Alternatively it could cause the asteroid to break into many peaces causing multiple impacts on the earth and actually making the situation worse.

Thanks for the explanation  


Although, if I'm honest, I didn't know that - I just meant nuke in an ironic fashion, as that seems to be the cause of and soloution to all problems nowadays. Actually, maybe not the cause, but definitely the solution...