Suddenly, for no apparent reason, an adamantium spear as long as Jupiter is wide comes sailing towards earth. It's about as thick as a telephone pole and traveling at 10 miles/sec. It will intercept earth and is coming from the location of Jupiter.
Will Earth be able to handle it? How do people react if they survive?
Nope. Earth is hosed.
[QUOTE=Postmania;5766357]Suddenly, for no apparent reason, an adamantium spear as long as Jupiter is wide comes sailing towards earth. It's about as thick as a telephone pole and traveling at 10 miles/sec. It will intercept earth and is coming from the location of Jupiter.
Will Earth be able to handle it? How do people react if they survive?[/QUOTE]
Whoever tries this one needs to be good with math lol
Okay, so we are looking at about 11,267.5 hours to reach Earth, which is about 15 months give or take.
Assuming a steady rate of speed, and nothing getting in the way to slow it down.
This also assumes that the aim has taken into account the movements of both Jupiter and Earth around the sun,as well as the effects of gravity.
Worst case scenario, Earth has a little over one year to figure out how to stop or deflect it. Considering all of the current thought going into what to do if an Asteroid heads towards the Earth there are scientists and others already considering various options.
Best case scenario, the aim is off and the spear heads into the sun instead.
I mean, the width being so small makes this not that bad to be honest.
Is it self-propelled or will the impact blunt its forward momentum?
Well with just some quickmaths, a telephone pole (30 feet tall, weighing 430~ pounds) traveling that fast would impact with about 25 giganewtons which is like... 2.5 million tons of force?
[QUOTE=Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh;5766774]Well with just some quickmaths, a telephone pole (30 feet tall, weighing 430~ pounds) traveling that fast would impact with about 25 giganewtons which is like... 2.5 million tons of force?[/QUOTE]
Translating that into like... megatons or something... is a bit tricky?
I think the planet is going to be fine to be honest.
[QUOTE=Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh;5766774]Well with just some quickmaths, a telephone pole (30 feet tall, weighing 430~ pounds) traveling that fast would impact with about 25 giganewtons which is like... 2.5 million tons of force?[/QUOTE]
That sounds like [URL="https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/"]Nuclear Explosion[/URL] territory.
[QUOTE=Nik Hasta;5766789]Translating that into like... megatons or something... is a bit tricky?
I think the planet is going to be fine to be honest.[/QUOTE]
2.5 million tons of force is pretty much exactly 2.5 Megatons. That’s what a Megaton is. ;)
You’re also missing that Cthulhu’s talking about a 30’ telegraph pole made of wood.
One the length of Jupiter’s diameter made of adamantium is going to hit quite a lot harder. Like several million times more, probably.
[QUOTE=Nik Hasta;5766789]Translating that into like... megatons or something... is a bit tricky?
I think the planet is going to be fine to be honest.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Beadle;5766840]2.5 million tons of force is pretty much exactly 2.5 Megatons. That’s what a Megaton is. ;)
You’re also missing that Cthulhu’s talking about a 30’ telegraph pole made of wood.
One the length of Jupiter’s diameter made of adamantium is going to hit quite a lot harder. Like several million times more, probably.[/QUOTE]
Yea there's a level of scaling here I can't quite figure out, tbh I keep thinking about that scene from JI: Joe where they [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOKf5r_JMAo"]drop a tungsten rod on London[/URL]. Ignoring how schlocky this movie was, I feel like an adamantium rod traveling much much faster will do similiar, or more likely far worse.
[QUOTE=Beadle;5766840]2.5 million tons of force is pretty much exactly 2.5 Megatons. That’s what a Megaton is. ;)
You’re also missing that Cthulhu’s talking about a 30’ telegraph pole made of wood.
One the length of Jupiter’s diameter made of adamantium is going to hit quite a lot harder. Like several million times more, probably.[/QUOTE]
If we want to really get serious, we need the density of adamantium. With that we can suss out the energy its going to impart to the planet.
A lot of telegraph poles are made of Scots Pine, which typically has a density of about 470 kg/m3. If we use steel to represent adamantium, it ranges from 7,750-8,050 kg/m3, so if we pick 7,900 that’s bang in the middle of that range.
So steel is 16.8 times as dense as the telegraph pole.
Jupiter’s diameter in feet is 458.73 million. Or 15.291 million times longer than the telegraph pole.
So the total mass of this spear is around 257 million times as much as the telegraph pole, meaning the 2.5 Megatons becomes 6.4x10^14 tons. Or 640 teratons.
That’s quite a lot.
[QUOTE=Beadle;5767012]A lot of telegraph poles are made of Scots Pine, which typically has a density of about 470 kg/m3. If we use steel to represent adamantium, it ranges from 7,750-8,050 kg/m3, so if we pick 7,900 that’s bang in the middle of that range.
So steel is 16.8 times as dense as the telegraph pole.
Jupiter’s diameter in feet is 458.73 million. Or 15.291 million times longer than the telegraph pole.
So the total mass of this spear is around 257 million times as much as the telegraph pole, meaning the 2.5 Megatons becomes 6.4x10^14 tons. Or 640 teratons.
That’s quite a lot.[/QUOTE]
Oh heck I missed that it was the length of Jupiter's diameter. I assumed it was being fired from a distance equal to Jupiter's Diameter. This makes things far far worse.
The other thing to bear in mind is that if Earth survives the initial impact, the spear either:
1. Passes right through the Earth probably causing enormous damage to the Earth’s core, which may have potentially calamitous effects on the Earth’s integrity and it’s magnetic poles.
2. Doesn’t pass through and Earth now has a huge heavy stick in its side like a massive planetary lollipop, and that would almost certainly screw Earth’s rotation and orbit, sending it spiralling either into the Sun (and it’s obvious destruction) or away from it into the depths of space (where every living creature on Earth would die).
But even if the planet survived all of this, humans wouldn’t. It would be largely lifeless and barren, because this would be the extinction event to end them all.
[QUOTE=Beadle;5767036]The other thing to bear in mind is that if Earth survives the initial impact, the spear either:
1. Passes right through the Earth probably causing enormous damage to the Earth’s core, which may have potentially calamitous effects on the Earth’s integrity and it’s magnetic poles.
2. Doesn’t pass through and Earth now has a huge heavy stick in its side like a massive planetary lollipop, and that would almost certainly screw Earth’s rotation and orbit, sending it spiralling either into the Sun (and it’s obvious destruction) or away from it into the depths of space (where every living creature on Earth would die).
But even if the planet survived all of this, humans wouldn’t. It would be largely lifeless and barren, because this would be the extinction event to end them all.[/QUOTE]
To be fair my starspawn wouldn't die, quite good at hibernating.. odds of us waking up any time soon is pretty well non-existent though.