Astronomers estimate that a 2
-
km wide asteroid collides with the Earth once every million years. The
collision could pose a threat to life on Earth. (a) Assume a spherical asteroid has a mass of 3200 kg
for
each cubic meter of volume and moves toward the Earth at 15 km/s. How much destructive energy
could be released when it embeds itself in the Earth? (b) For comparison, a nuclear bomb could release
about
. How many such bombs would have to
explode simultaneously to release the
destructive energy of the asteroid collision with Earth?

Question

Astronomers estimate that a 2
-
km wide asteroid collides with the Earth once every million years. The 
collision could pose a threat to life on Earth. (a) Assume a spherical asteroid has a mass of 3200 kg 
for 
each cubic meter of volume and moves toward the Earth at 15 km/s. How much destructive energy 
could be released when it embeds itself in the Earth? (b) For comparison, a nuclear bomb could release 
about 
. How many such bombs would have to 
explode simultaneously to release the 
destructive energy of the asteroid collision with Earth?

anonymous · Answer

for me it could not be estimated right now.bcoz scientists were even cant able to measure the distructions of atom bombs, nuclear reactor , earthquakes,etc.,

anonymous · Answer

Assuming a spherical asteroid 2km wide with a density of 3200 kg/m3 using simple maths its mass will be 1.3 x 10^13kg

Its kinetic energy will be 1.5 x 10^21 Joules. This will all get converted into sound, heat etc and this energy will cause the destruction.

The 'Little boy' bomb dropped on Hiroshima was 6.3 * 10^13 Joules

That means the kinetic energy of our asteroid would be 23,000,000 x the energy of the Hiroshima bomb.