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Death Star Science: The Physics Of Destroying An Earth-Sized Planet
StartsWithABang writes: The ability to destroy an Alderaan-like (or, ahem, Earth-like) planet has long been the dream of slashdotters everywhere. But generating the power necessary to unbind a planet — some 2.24 x 10^32 Joules — is simply impossible on board an object only the size of a small moon. But if, instead, you could house a 1-2 trillion ton asteroid (about 5-7 km across) made of antimatter and deliver it to the planet's core, Einstein's E=mc^2 ensures that the planet will be destroyed in seconds.
Please stop, Ethan. You make me want to amputate my brain.
I don't think it would work as well as TFA suggests. Even if you could instantly insert a 5-7 tera-ton anti-matter asteroid into earth's core, it would not just instantly detonate. Only the surface, that was in contact with matter, would explode, sending a compression wave both inward and outward, pushing the matter and anti-matter apart. Plasma would occupy the space in between, but it would be too tenuous to provide enough energy to instantly blow the planet apart in just a few seconds. Sure, all life would be wiped out, and the planet would be blown apart, but I am not sure it would happen in just a "few seconds" like in the movie.
The 10 year old boy inside of me wants to blow up a friggin planet, all right? Have some appreciation for a typical Forbes reader.
It isn't a normal laser, it is a gravity laser. The gravity laser compresses all of the matter in the way to the point where fusion occurs between all elements. This lets you poke a whole through the planet since the beam can get past the matter it has already compressed. While the beam is still on it will be pulling more and more of the planet into it. When you get enough captured in the beam, turn it off and left the compressed matter explodes via nuclear fusion.
Ethan 'Bubblegum' Tate: We need some kind of Doomsday device to create an implosion like that.
Professor Hubert Farnsworth: Doomsday device? Aha! Now the ball's in Farnsworth's court.
[pulls on a lever; a platform appears with several Doomsday devices]
Professor Hubert Farnsworth: I suppose I can part with one and still be feared.
Or you could just blow up the moon and wait for the Hard Rain
https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
You don't have to transport the antimatter through the crust and mantle. You can just send it directly into the core via hyperspace.
A 5-7km size asteroid? How would you house it in a space ship efficiently? You would need some sort of spherical spaceship. It might look like a moon from a distance, but what would aliens think as they got close to it?
Greg Bear's The Forge of God destroyed the Earth in this manner many years ago. An attacking civilization flung two large pieces of neutronium and antineutronium at opposite sides of the Earth, where they descended to the core and orbited each other for several weeks, until they spiraled in together and made bad things happen.
Please stand clear of the doors, por favor mantenganse alejado de las puertas
Have gnu, will travel.
I don't think we want to know what he did once he got the computer on its virtual knees.
You are welcome on my lawn.
The assumption in the article appears to be that the planet was blown apart with such force that it never reformed, who says that is the case? Just blowing the planet up to the point where it temporary ejected most of its mass and then eventually reformed into a lifeless rock should require significantly less energy.
The site "Things of Interest" (qntm.org) has a pair of better articles: