Let’s say a 1 ton sphere of tungsten moving at 99.99% the speed of light hits earth, what happens? As...











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What kind of destruction would it cause? I’m assuming it’d be rather significant, could it shatter a tectonic plate? The crust? How would the oceans fare? Would the planet be able to catch the projectile? Could any life survive the event?



And if you’re able to stand another question, how immediately noticeable would this event be to other planets in the star system?










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  • 22




    It's in no way an answer, since it's a completely different size, but this XKCD What-if is a good read
    – Andon
    20 hours ago






  • 21




    There needs to be a "VTC - XKCD".
    – RonJohn
    20 hours ago






  • 34




    This XKCD is closer to OPs question: what-if.xkcd.com/20
    – s3raph86
    19 hours ago






  • 4




    How can anyone consider this question to be Too Story-based. Go and read the very link posted with the off-topic statement. Try and learn to do better.
    – a4android
    15 hours ago






  • 3




    @Andon, is it likely to matter?
    – Deolater
    12 hours ago















up vote
20
down vote

favorite
4












What kind of destruction would it cause? I’m assuming it’d be rather significant, could it shatter a tectonic plate? The crust? How would the oceans fare? Would the planet be able to catch the projectile? Could any life survive the event?



And if you’re able to stand another question, how immediately noticeable would this event be to other planets in the star system?










share|improve this question









New contributor




Claiming Herald is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
















  • 22




    It's in no way an answer, since it's a completely different size, but this XKCD What-if is a good read
    – Andon
    20 hours ago






  • 21




    There needs to be a "VTC - XKCD".
    – RonJohn
    20 hours ago






  • 34




    This XKCD is closer to OPs question: what-if.xkcd.com/20
    – s3raph86
    19 hours ago






  • 4




    How can anyone consider this question to be Too Story-based. Go and read the very link posted with the off-topic statement. Try and learn to do better.
    – a4android
    15 hours ago






  • 3




    @Andon, is it likely to matter?
    – Deolater
    12 hours ago













up vote
20
down vote

favorite
4









up vote
20
down vote

favorite
4






4





What kind of destruction would it cause? I’m assuming it’d be rather significant, could it shatter a tectonic plate? The crust? How would the oceans fare? Would the planet be able to catch the projectile? Could any life survive the event?



And if you’re able to stand another question, how immediately noticeable would this event be to other planets in the star system?










share|improve this question









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Claiming Herald is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
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What kind of destruction would it cause? I’m assuming it’d be rather significant, could it shatter a tectonic plate? The crust? How would the oceans fare? Would the planet be able to catch the projectile? Could any life survive the event?



And if you’re able to stand another question, how immediately noticeable would this event be to other planets in the star system?







science-fiction physics explosions






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edited 2 hours ago









flow2k

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  • 22




    It's in no way an answer, since it's a completely different size, but this XKCD What-if is a good read
    – Andon
    20 hours ago






  • 21




    There needs to be a "VTC - XKCD".
    – RonJohn
    20 hours ago






  • 34




    This XKCD is closer to OPs question: what-if.xkcd.com/20
    – s3raph86
    19 hours ago






  • 4




    How can anyone consider this question to be Too Story-based. Go and read the very link posted with the off-topic statement. Try and learn to do better.
    – a4android
    15 hours ago






  • 3




    @Andon, is it likely to matter?
    – Deolater
    12 hours ago














  • 22




    It's in no way an answer, since it's a completely different size, but this XKCD What-if is a good read
    – Andon
    20 hours ago






  • 21




    There needs to be a "VTC - XKCD".
    – RonJohn
    20 hours ago






  • 34




    This XKCD is closer to OPs question: what-if.xkcd.com/20
    – s3raph86
    19 hours ago






  • 4




    How can anyone consider this question to be Too Story-based. Go and read the very link posted with the off-topic statement. Try and learn to do better.
    – a4android
    15 hours ago






  • 3




    @Andon, is it likely to matter?
    – Deolater
    12 hours ago








22




22




It's in no way an answer, since it's a completely different size, but this XKCD What-if is a good read
– Andon
20 hours ago




It's in no way an answer, since it's a completely different size, but this XKCD What-if is a good read
– Andon
20 hours ago




21




21




There needs to be a "VTC - XKCD".
– RonJohn
20 hours ago




There needs to be a "VTC - XKCD".
– RonJohn
20 hours ago




34




34




This XKCD is closer to OPs question: what-if.xkcd.com/20
– s3raph86
19 hours ago




This XKCD is closer to OPs question: what-if.xkcd.com/20
– s3raph86
19 hours ago




4




4




How can anyone consider this question to be Too Story-based. Go and read the very link posted with the off-topic statement. Try and learn to do better.
– a4android
15 hours ago




How can anyone consider this question to be Too Story-based. Go and read the very link posted with the off-topic statement. Try and learn to do better.
– a4android
15 hours ago




3




3




@Andon, is it likely to matter?
– Deolater
12 hours ago




@Andon, is it likely to matter?
– Deolater
12 hours ago










4 Answers
4






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up vote
58
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This turned out unexpectedly fun... and for once the answer to a question involving 99.99% of the speed of light isn't "everybody dies"



Where is this sphere being fired from?



If it's from outside the solar system then hitting the earth as a sphere is.... a problem...



The volume of 1000 kg of tungsten = 51.9 L



Radius = 0.23 m



That's 5439.5 moles of tungsten.



As the sphere approaches from the orbit of Pluto we can estimate how much matter it would hit.



We can treat the space it passes through as a cylinder with radius 0.23 m and height of 7.5 billion kilometers.



It would take our projectile about 7 hours to travel that distance.



It would pass through 1246 km^3 (cubic kilometers) of space.



In the solar system with the solar wind the density of atoms is 2x10^7 per cubic meter, mostly hydrogen or helium.



Treating it all as hydrogen for simplicity that gives us 0.04171 mg of hydrogen.



This gives us 261.3 GJ (gigajoules) or 72.59 MW h (megawatt hours) as the approximate energy involved in the collisions between the fine mist of gas in the solar system and the bullet.



That's the energy of the atoms hitting the front of the bullet, and most of the energy would be effectively dumped into the metal.



Given this is over 7 hours that means there's something like 10.37 MW of energy being pumped into the sphere every hour.



Tungsten has a heat of vaporization of 800 kJ/mol, so it takes 4,351,600 kJ of energy to turn 1 ton of tungsten into gas.



Unfortunately your tungsten "bullet" sphere is getting hit with 37,332,000 kJ of energy per hour so within the first 7 minutes of its 7 hour journey it's become a cloud of atoms glowing hot at about 5555 degrees Celsius...



At this point the calculations get harder because it's no longer a nice neat sphere; it's a cloud of super-high temperature gas traveling so fast that it's glowing like the heart of a star and it's very hot gas so the cloud is expanding very fast. It's now hitting even more of the random atoms in space as it's approaching earth. Assuming the sphere was aimed to hit earth perfectly dead center I can't even tell you if all of the gas would actually hit the earth or if the hot cloud of gas would expand from itself fast enough to mostly miss the earth. I don't know how much extra energy the cloud would lose to hitting atoms along the way after the sphere melts and turns into gas since it now has a massive surface area...



But let's say that the cloud all still hits the earth's atmosphere, but over the 6 hours and 50 minutes since it passed Pluto it's spread out to hit the entire facing side of the earth fairly evenly and none misses and it's still carrying most of its energy.



As in L. Dutche's answer, according to Wolfram Alpha, the relativistic kinetic energy of such a bullet would be 6.265 x 10^21 J, or 1.5 million megatons.



... but... The total power output of the Sun hitting earth is about 4.3 × 10^20 J per hour hitting atmosphere on the side facing the sun.



The bullet is carrying far less energy than a single days worth of sunlight.



Cosmic rays can't pierce the earths atmosphere and the bullet is now more similar to a giant cloud of cosmic rays, but each with far less energy than the "Oh My God particle".



Everything in orbit on that side of the earth would be hit with a huge dose of cosmic rays.



The hard radiation would be caught by the atmosphere and some heat would make it to the surface... but the atmosphere is vast and that much isn't even enough to raise the temperature of the gas on that side of the planet by 1 degree Celsius average.



I suspect anyone outside might get flash burns. I don't know if the energy would be enough to start major fires. To an extent the more energy ends up as high energy particles and radiation the less hits the earth surface as heat.



Enter image description here



But to answer your question: As it approached the gas cloud that used to be the bullet would burn brightly in the sky as it impacted gas and dust ... then for a brief moment the entire sky of half the earth would blaze with light thousands of times brighter than sun... it might burn things on the surface... but the tectonic plates would be safe.



Edit: re Yakk's comments below, as the cloud is passing through space there may also be bursts of something like space-lightening as the cloud interacts with subatomic particles that strip away electrons and depending on how far away from earth the bullet starts ..




Napkin math says this means a spread of E-5 (i.e., every E5 meters it spreads out 1 meter), which means over 100 AU that is 150,000 km. That is order-of-order-of-magnitude size of Earth.




~Yakk



So the cloud may partly miss earth since the diameter of earth is only 12,742 km, so maybe a little bit like getting caught in the middle of a shotgun blast of space-lightening-filled hard radiation with much passing either side of the earth.






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  • Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat.
    – L.Dutch
    6 hours ago










  • Typo: lightning, not lightening.
    – David Conrad
    5 hours ago










  • "over 100 AU that is 150,000 km"... that's one order of magnitude larger than the Earth.
    – kbelder
    4 hours ago






  • 1




    The solar wind density you quote is for earth orbit (hypertextbook.com/facts/2005/RandyAbbas.shtml). Presumably density falls off as 1/r^2 as you get farther from the sun.
    – Peter Cordes
    2 hours ago










  • So they would want to send a 1-ton dart to make sure it all gets there?
    – corsiKa
    1 hour ago


















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According to WolphramAlpha, the relativistic kinetic energy of such a bullet would be $6.265 cdot 10^{21} mathrm J$, or 1.5 million megatons.



The gravitational binding energy of Earth is $2 cdot 10^{32} mathrm J$, therefore we can stay assured that the planet won't be completely wiped out.



Quoting from this useful page, the impact energy would be comparable to the last eruption of Yellowstone super volcano. This event left a large deposit of tuffs, known as Lava Creek Tuffs. The following picture shows their extension:



enter image description here




The Lava Creek Tuff is distributed in a radial pattern around the caldera and is formed of 1,000 km3 (240 cu mi) of ignimbrites.



Lava Creek Tuff ranges in color from light gray to pale red in some locales. Rock texture of the tuff ranges from fine-grained to aphanitic and is densely welded. The maximum thickness of the tuff layer is approximately 180–200 m.




The relativistic impact would be for sure a global cataclysm: the spallation would probably temporarily deform the planet, and the following relaxation would result in increased volcanic activity.



The resulting emission of ashes and gases would severely impact life, with mass extinction effect.



An observer in a suitable position in the Solar system would notice a bright flash during the impact, probably followed by an increased IR emission due to the thermal effects of volcanic eruptions.



To give you a reference of how bright would the flash, the impact energy is about 1/10 of the total solar energy striking the Earth in one day, and it is released in a much shorter time. I assume that for few seconds the Sun and Earth would appear like twin stars in the sky.






share|improve this answer























  • You might add that it corresponds to (gamma-1)mc². Where gamma=1/sqrt(1-(v/c)²). And furthermore, that would be the equivalent of about 30,000 Tsar bomba exploding at once.
    – bilbo_pingouin
    19 hours ago






  • 4




    "A bright flash" -- you can do better. How bright? "Can see in telescope", "visible to the naked eye from Mars", "like a camera flash", "beings on mars go blind if looking in the direction of the the Earth".
    – Yakk
    13 hours ago










  • Care to explain how to do this in WA so that every smash my planet question can just point here?
    – Mazura
    3 hours ago










  • @Mazura, I just typed "relativistic kinetic energy" in WA, then input mass and velocity
    – L.Dutch
    3 hours ago










  • @Yakk, I have some details
    – L.Dutch
    3 hours ago


















up vote
0
down vote













I can't show the precise math but I believe it's pretty certain that the projectile, although losing some energy when hiting the atmosphere (more even so if it crosses the Van Allen radiation belt), will have enough piercing power to go through the Earth's crust and upper mantle, plunging into the magmatic lower mantle, creating inner waves that would propagate to the nearest tectonic fault lines causing almost immediate eruption and earthquakes along those.



In the following years some of this energy will be transmitted to the other fault lines replicating seismic activity all over the world.



As al alternative, if the projectile pierces even further, into the outer or even inner core, this would alterate the global magnetic field.



Finally, it has been theorised that within the lower mantle there can be layers of cold materials, some pretty hard. If an object like that absorbs most of the impact I can imagine an orbital displacement of the Earth.






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  • 2




    Are you basing this belief on anything in particular?
    – Ben Barden
    10 hours ago










  • On the calculations made above, almost unlimited energy, almost instantáneous speed and the fact that tungsten is harder and denser than the earth. I assumed it's not natural tungsten but tungsten carbide.
    – Tomás
    9 hours ago






  • 2




    ...but the calculations made above indicate that that's not what will happen, and the energy isn't anything like unlimited. It's ever so slightly less than you'd get out of total mass-to-energy conversion of a ton of material - quite large, but not impossibly so. Likewise, the speed of light isn't instantaneous... and at those relative speeds, hardness and density very nearly don't matter.
    – Ben Barden
    9 hours ago










  • Agreed, but in the mesure that it does matter (because fission wouldn't be instantaneous) I laid some options as to what could happen with those impacts at different levels. I think of it as In one hand this proyectile behaves as a laser with decreasing energy. On the other hand as a relatively small bullet.
    – Tomás
    8 hours ago










  • I like this answer. But I would add it would knock the earth off its orbit also. Let’s reiterarte the “99.99” speed of light. That is POWERFUL! If not impossible. Ok, it is impossible.
    – Robus
    1 hour ago




















up vote
-4
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boom



I think that with the size and speed it would be quite powerful. First of all the impact would be virtually instantaneous. This would cause all the force to be extremely concentrated. If it's moving 99% the speed of light, well, imagine all that power compressed into a second--now imagine it being a million times faster than that. Now imagine it being WAY faster than that. The damage of the impact is going to be based on the force multiplied by the inverse of time--and as time approaches zero...






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  • 3




    Cool image, but nothing like what would really happen.
    – zeta-band
    8 hours ago










  • In the baseball XKCD what-if.xkcd.com/1 mentioned above, the ball is much less dense and MUCH slower. It might not go straight through but it would definitely be life-ending. The diamond one would be closer: "The energy cracks a hole in the crust and blows open a crater so big you can see the molten mantle. This delivers the energy of 50 dinosaur-killing Chicxulub impacts—enough to cause a mass extinction, if not end life completely." (Although the diamond they are talking about is bigger I think it would be more or less on that scale)
    – Bill K
    8 hours ago












  • Even if ti hits the surface relatively intact, I doubt it penetrates deeper than a couple of miles, the vaporized tungsten is going to interact with the rock really strongly.
    – zeta-band
    8 hours ago






  • 1




    The question was if it hit the world, but as the XKCD does anything traveling at that speed would not be intact to start out with. It also wouldn't impact so much as phase. It would also be a strange shaped and be enveloped in a giant fireball with the power of multiple nuclear bombs behind it. With a speed like that it wouldn't have any time to break up and wouldn't actually interact much with the atoms it passes through. I'm thinking you are only considering normal physics and not relativistic.
    – Bill K
    6 hours ago











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4 Answers
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4 Answers
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active

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active

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up vote
58
down vote













This turned out unexpectedly fun... and for once the answer to a question involving 99.99% of the speed of light isn't "everybody dies"



Where is this sphere being fired from?



If it's from outside the solar system then hitting the earth as a sphere is.... a problem...



The volume of 1000 kg of tungsten = 51.9 L



Radius = 0.23 m



That's 5439.5 moles of tungsten.



As the sphere approaches from the orbit of Pluto we can estimate how much matter it would hit.



We can treat the space it passes through as a cylinder with radius 0.23 m and height of 7.5 billion kilometers.



It would take our projectile about 7 hours to travel that distance.



It would pass through 1246 km^3 (cubic kilometers) of space.



In the solar system with the solar wind the density of atoms is 2x10^7 per cubic meter, mostly hydrogen or helium.



Treating it all as hydrogen for simplicity that gives us 0.04171 mg of hydrogen.



This gives us 261.3 GJ (gigajoules) or 72.59 MW h (megawatt hours) as the approximate energy involved in the collisions between the fine mist of gas in the solar system and the bullet.



That's the energy of the atoms hitting the front of the bullet, and most of the energy would be effectively dumped into the metal.



Given this is over 7 hours that means there's something like 10.37 MW of energy being pumped into the sphere every hour.



Tungsten has a heat of vaporization of 800 kJ/mol, so it takes 4,351,600 kJ of energy to turn 1 ton of tungsten into gas.



Unfortunately your tungsten "bullet" sphere is getting hit with 37,332,000 kJ of energy per hour so within the first 7 minutes of its 7 hour journey it's become a cloud of atoms glowing hot at about 5555 degrees Celsius...



At this point the calculations get harder because it's no longer a nice neat sphere; it's a cloud of super-high temperature gas traveling so fast that it's glowing like the heart of a star and it's very hot gas so the cloud is expanding very fast. It's now hitting even more of the random atoms in space as it's approaching earth. Assuming the sphere was aimed to hit earth perfectly dead center I can't even tell you if all of the gas would actually hit the earth or if the hot cloud of gas would expand from itself fast enough to mostly miss the earth. I don't know how much extra energy the cloud would lose to hitting atoms along the way after the sphere melts and turns into gas since it now has a massive surface area...



But let's say that the cloud all still hits the earth's atmosphere, but over the 6 hours and 50 minutes since it passed Pluto it's spread out to hit the entire facing side of the earth fairly evenly and none misses and it's still carrying most of its energy.



As in L. Dutche's answer, according to Wolfram Alpha, the relativistic kinetic energy of such a bullet would be 6.265 x 10^21 J, or 1.5 million megatons.



... but... The total power output of the Sun hitting earth is about 4.3 × 10^20 J per hour hitting atmosphere on the side facing the sun.



The bullet is carrying far less energy than a single days worth of sunlight.



Cosmic rays can't pierce the earths atmosphere and the bullet is now more similar to a giant cloud of cosmic rays, but each with far less energy than the "Oh My God particle".



Everything in orbit on that side of the earth would be hit with a huge dose of cosmic rays.



The hard radiation would be caught by the atmosphere and some heat would make it to the surface... but the atmosphere is vast and that much isn't even enough to raise the temperature of the gas on that side of the planet by 1 degree Celsius average.



I suspect anyone outside might get flash burns. I don't know if the energy would be enough to start major fires. To an extent the more energy ends up as high energy particles and radiation the less hits the earth surface as heat.



Enter image description here



But to answer your question: As it approached the gas cloud that used to be the bullet would burn brightly in the sky as it impacted gas and dust ... then for a brief moment the entire sky of half the earth would blaze with light thousands of times brighter than sun... it might burn things on the surface... but the tectonic plates would be safe.



Edit: re Yakk's comments below, as the cloud is passing through space there may also be bursts of something like space-lightening as the cloud interacts with subatomic particles that strip away electrons and depending on how far away from earth the bullet starts ..




Napkin math says this means a spread of E-5 (i.e., every E5 meters it spreads out 1 meter), which means over 100 AU that is 150,000 km. That is order-of-order-of-magnitude size of Earth.




~Yakk



So the cloud may partly miss earth since the diameter of earth is only 12,742 km, so maybe a little bit like getting caught in the middle of a shotgun blast of space-lightening-filled hard radiation with much passing either side of the earth.






share|improve this answer























  • Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat.
    – L.Dutch
    6 hours ago










  • Typo: lightning, not lightening.
    – David Conrad
    5 hours ago










  • "over 100 AU that is 150,000 km"... that's one order of magnitude larger than the Earth.
    – kbelder
    4 hours ago






  • 1




    The solar wind density you quote is for earth orbit (hypertextbook.com/facts/2005/RandyAbbas.shtml). Presumably density falls off as 1/r^2 as you get farther from the sun.
    – Peter Cordes
    2 hours ago










  • So they would want to send a 1-ton dart to make sure it all gets there?
    – corsiKa
    1 hour ago















up vote
58
down vote













This turned out unexpectedly fun... and for once the answer to a question involving 99.99% of the speed of light isn't "everybody dies"



Where is this sphere being fired from?



If it's from outside the solar system then hitting the earth as a sphere is.... a problem...



The volume of 1000 kg of tungsten = 51.9 L



Radius = 0.23 m



That's 5439.5 moles of tungsten.



As the sphere approaches from the orbit of Pluto we can estimate how much matter it would hit.



We can treat the space it passes through as a cylinder with radius 0.23 m and height of 7.5 billion kilometers.



It would take our projectile about 7 hours to travel that distance.



It would pass through 1246 km^3 (cubic kilometers) of space.



In the solar system with the solar wind the density of atoms is 2x10^7 per cubic meter, mostly hydrogen or helium.



Treating it all as hydrogen for simplicity that gives us 0.04171 mg of hydrogen.



This gives us 261.3 GJ (gigajoules) or 72.59 MW h (megawatt hours) as the approximate energy involved in the collisions between the fine mist of gas in the solar system and the bullet.



That's the energy of the atoms hitting the front of the bullet, and most of the energy would be effectively dumped into the metal.



Given this is over 7 hours that means there's something like 10.37 MW of energy being pumped into the sphere every hour.



Tungsten has a heat of vaporization of 800 kJ/mol, so it takes 4,351,600 kJ of energy to turn 1 ton of tungsten into gas.



Unfortunately your tungsten "bullet" sphere is getting hit with 37,332,000 kJ of energy per hour so within the first 7 minutes of its 7 hour journey it's become a cloud of atoms glowing hot at about 5555 degrees Celsius...



At this point the calculations get harder because it's no longer a nice neat sphere; it's a cloud of super-high temperature gas traveling so fast that it's glowing like the heart of a star and it's very hot gas so the cloud is expanding very fast. It's now hitting even more of the random atoms in space as it's approaching earth. Assuming the sphere was aimed to hit earth perfectly dead center I can't even tell you if all of the gas would actually hit the earth or if the hot cloud of gas would expand from itself fast enough to mostly miss the earth. I don't know how much extra energy the cloud would lose to hitting atoms along the way after the sphere melts and turns into gas since it now has a massive surface area...



But let's say that the cloud all still hits the earth's atmosphere, but over the 6 hours and 50 minutes since it passed Pluto it's spread out to hit the entire facing side of the earth fairly evenly and none misses and it's still carrying most of its energy.



As in L. Dutche's answer, according to Wolfram Alpha, the relativistic kinetic energy of such a bullet would be 6.265 x 10^21 J, or 1.5 million megatons.



... but... The total power output of the Sun hitting earth is about 4.3 × 10^20 J per hour hitting atmosphere on the side facing the sun.



The bullet is carrying far less energy than a single days worth of sunlight.



Cosmic rays can't pierce the earths atmosphere and the bullet is now more similar to a giant cloud of cosmic rays, but each with far less energy than the "Oh My God particle".



Everything in orbit on that side of the earth would be hit with a huge dose of cosmic rays.



The hard radiation would be caught by the atmosphere and some heat would make it to the surface... but the atmosphere is vast and that much isn't even enough to raise the temperature of the gas on that side of the planet by 1 degree Celsius average.



I suspect anyone outside might get flash burns. I don't know if the energy would be enough to start major fires. To an extent the more energy ends up as high energy particles and radiation the less hits the earth surface as heat.



Enter image description here



But to answer your question: As it approached the gas cloud that used to be the bullet would burn brightly in the sky as it impacted gas and dust ... then for a brief moment the entire sky of half the earth would blaze with light thousands of times brighter than sun... it might burn things on the surface... but the tectonic plates would be safe.



Edit: re Yakk's comments below, as the cloud is passing through space there may also be bursts of something like space-lightening as the cloud interacts with subatomic particles that strip away electrons and depending on how far away from earth the bullet starts ..




Napkin math says this means a spread of E-5 (i.e., every E5 meters it spreads out 1 meter), which means over 100 AU that is 150,000 km. That is order-of-order-of-magnitude size of Earth.




~Yakk



So the cloud may partly miss earth since the diameter of earth is only 12,742 km, so maybe a little bit like getting caught in the middle of a shotgun blast of space-lightening-filled hard radiation with much passing either side of the earth.






share|improve this answer























  • Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat.
    – L.Dutch
    6 hours ago










  • Typo: lightning, not lightening.
    – David Conrad
    5 hours ago










  • "over 100 AU that is 150,000 km"... that's one order of magnitude larger than the Earth.
    – kbelder
    4 hours ago






  • 1




    The solar wind density you quote is for earth orbit (hypertextbook.com/facts/2005/RandyAbbas.shtml). Presumably density falls off as 1/r^2 as you get farther from the sun.
    – Peter Cordes
    2 hours ago










  • So they would want to send a 1-ton dart to make sure it all gets there?
    – corsiKa
    1 hour ago













up vote
58
down vote










up vote
58
down vote









This turned out unexpectedly fun... and for once the answer to a question involving 99.99% of the speed of light isn't "everybody dies"



Where is this sphere being fired from?



If it's from outside the solar system then hitting the earth as a sphere is.... a problem...



The volume of 1000 kg of tungsten = 51.9 L



Radius = 0.23 m



That's 5439.5 moles of tungsten.



As the sphere approaches from the orbit of Pluto we can estimate how much matter it would hit.



We can treat the space it passes through as a cylinder with radius 0.23 m and height of 7.5 billion kilometers.



It would take our projectile about 7 hours to travel that distance.



It would pass through 1246 km^3 (cubic kilometers) of space.



In the solar system with the solar wind the density of atoms is 2x10^7 per cubic meter, mostly hydrogen or helium.



Treating it all as hydrogen for simplicity that gives us 0.04171 mg of hydrogen.



This gives us 261.3 GJ (gigajoules) or 72.59 MW h (megawatt hours) as the approximate energy involved in the collisions between the fine mist of gas in the solar system and the bullet.



That's the energy of the atoms hitting the front of the bullet, and most of the energy would be effectively dumped into the metal.



Given this is over 7 hours that means there's something like 10.37 MW of energy being pumped into the sphere every hour.



Tungsten has a heat of vaporization of 800 kJ/mol, so it takes 4,351,600 kJ of energy to turn 1 ton of tungsten into gas.



Unfortunately your tungsten "bullet" sphere is getting hit with 37,332,000 kJ of energy per hour so within the first 7 minutes of its 7 hour journey it's become a cloud of atoms glowing hot at about 5555 degrees Celsius...



At this point the calculations get harder because it's no longer a nice neat sphere; it's a cloud of super-high temperature gas traveling so fast that it's glowing like the heart of a star and it's very hot gas so the cloud is expanding very fast. It's now hitting even more of the random atoms in space as it's approaching earth. Assuming the sphere was aimed to hit earth perfectly dead center I can't even tell you if all of the gas would actually hit the earth or if the hot cloud of gas would expand from itself fast enough to mostly miss the earth. I don't know how much extra energy the cloud would lose to hitting atoms along the way after the sphere melts and turns into gas since it now has a massive surface area...



But let's say that the cloud all still hits the earth's atmosphere, but over the 6 hours and 50 minutes since it passed Pluto it's spread out to hit the entire facing side of the earth fairly evenly and none misses and it's still carrying most of its energy.



As in L. Dutche's answer, according to Wolfram Alpha, the relativistic kinetic energy of such a bullet would be 6.265 x 10^21 J, or 1.5 million megatons.



... but... The total power output of the Sun hitting earth is about 4.3 × 10^20 J per hour hitting atmosphere on the side facing the sun.



The bullet is carrying far less energy than a single days worth of sunlight.



Cosmic rays can't pierce the earths atmosphere and the bullet is now more similar to a giant cloud of cosmic rays, but each with far less energy than the "Oh My God particle".



Everything in orbit on that side of the earth would be hit with a huge dose of cosmic rays.



The hard radiation would be caught by the atmosphere and some heat would make it to the surface... but the atmosphere is vast and that much isn't even enough to raise the temperature of the gas on that side of the planet by 1 degree Celsius average.



I suspect anyone outside might get flash burns. I don't know if the energy would be enough to start major fires. To an extent the more energy ends up as high energy particles and radiation the less hits the earth surface as heat.



Enter image description here



But to answer your question: As it approached the gas cloud that used to be the bullet would burn brightly in the sky as it impacted gas and dust ... then for a brief moment the entire sky of half the earth would blaze with light thousands of times brighter than sun... it might burn things on the surface... but the tectonic plates would be safe.



Edit: re Yakk's comments below, as the cloud is passing through space there may also be bursts of something like space-lightening as the cloud interacts with subatomic particles that strip away electrons and depending on how far away from earth the bullet starts ..




Napkin math says this means a spread of E-5 (i.e., every E5 meters it spreads out 1 meter), which means over 100 AU that is 150,000 km. That is order-of-order-of-magnitude size of Earth.




~Yakk



So the cloud may partly miss earth since the diameter of earth is only 12,742 km, so maybe a little bit like getting caught in the middle of a shotgun blast of space-lightening-filled hard radiation with much passing either side of the earth.






share|improve this answer














This turned out unexpectedly fun... and for once the answer to a question involving 99.99% of the speed of light isn't "everybody dies"



Where is this sphere being fired from?



If it's from outside the solar system then hitting the earth as a sphere is.... a problem...



The volume of 1000 kg of tungsten = 51.9 L



Radius = 0.23 m



That's 5439.5 moles of tungsten.



As the sphere approaches from the orbit of Pluto we can estimate how much matter it would hit.



We can treat the space it passes through as a cylinder with radius 0.23 m and height of 7.5 billion kilometers.



It would take our projectile about 7 hours to travel that distance.



It would pass through 1246 km^3 (cubic kilometers) of space.



In the solar system with the solar wind the density of atoms is 2x10^7 per cubic meter, mostly hydrogen or helium.



Treating it all as hydrogen for simplicity that gives us 0.04171 mg of hydrogen.



This gives us 261.3 GJ (gigajoules) or 72.59 MW h (megawatt hours) as the approximate energy involved in the collisions between the fine mist of gas in the solar system and the bullet.



That's the energy of the atoms hitting the front of the bullet, and most of the energy would be effectively dumped into the metal.



Given this is over 7 hours that means there's something like 10.37 MW of energy being pumped into the sphere every hour.



Tungsten has a heat of vaporization of 800 kJ/mol, so it takes 4,351,600 kJ of energy to turn 1 ton of tungsten into gas.



Unfortunately your tungsten "bullet" sphere is getting hit with 37,332,000 kJ of energy per hour so within the first 7 minutes of its 7 hour journey it's become a cloud of atoms glowing hot at about 5555 degrees Celsius...



At this point the calculations get harder because it's no longer a nice neat sphere; it's a cloud of super-high temperature gas traveling so fast that it's glowing like the heart of a star and it's very hot gas so the cloud is expanding very fast. It's now hitting even more of the random atoms in space as it's approaching earth. Assuming the sphere was aimed to hit earth perfectly dead center I can't even tell you if all of the gas would actually hit the earth or if the hot cloud of gas would expand from itself fast enough to mostly miss the earth. I don't know how much extra energy the cloud would lose to hitting atoms along the way after the sphere melts and turns into gas since it now has a massive surface area...



But let's say that the cloud all still hits the earth's atmosphere, but over the 6 hours and 50 minutes since it passed Pluto it's spread out to hit the entire facing side of the earth fairly evenly and none misses and it's still carrying most of its energy.



As in L. Dutche's answer, according to Wolfram Alpha, the relativistic kinetic energy of such a bullet would be 6.265 x 10^21 J, or 1.5 million megatons.



... but... The total power output of the Sun hitting earth is about 4.3 × 10^20 J per hour hitting atmosphere on the side facing the sun.



The bullet is carrying far less energy than a single days worth of sunlight.



Cosmic rays can't pierce the earths atmosphere and the bullet is now more similar to a giant cloud of cosmic rays, but each with far less energy than the "Oh My God particle".



Everything in orbit on that side of the earth would be hit with a huge dose of cosmic rays.



The hard radiation would be caught by the atmosphere and some heat would make it to the surface... but the atmosphere is vast and that much isn't even enough to raise the temperature of the gas on that side of the planet by 1 degree Celsius average.



I suspect anyone outside might get flash burns. I don't know if the energy would be enough to start major fires. To an extent the more energy ends up as high energy particles and radiation the less hits the earth surface as heat.



Enter image description here



But to answer your question: As it approached the gas cloud that used to be the bullet would burn brightly in the sky as it impacted gas and dust ... then for a brief moment the entire sky of half the earth would blaze with light thousands of times brighter than sun... it might burn things on the surface... but the tectonic plates would be safe.



Edit: re Yakk's comments below, as the cloud is passing through space there may also be bursts of something like space-lightening as the cloud interacts with subatomic particles that strip away electrons and depending on how far away from earth the bullet starts ..




Napkin math says this means a spread of E-5 (i.e., every E5 meters it spreads out 1 meter), which means over 100 AU that is 150,000 km. That is order-of-order-of-magnitude size of Earth.




~Yakk



So the cloud may partly miss earth since the diameter of earth is only 12,742 km, so maybe a little bit like getting caught in the middle of a shotgun blast of space-lightening-filled hard radiation with much passing either side of the earth.







share|improve this answer














share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer








edited 5 hours ago









Peter Mortensen

22716




22716










answered 15 hours ago









Murphy

23.1k4386




23.1k4386












  • Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat.
    – L.Dutch
    6 hours ago










  • Typo: lightning, not lightening.
    – David Conrad
    5 hours ago










  • "over 100 AU that is 150,000 km"... that's one order of magnitude larger than the Earth.
    – kbelder
    4 hours ago






  • 1




    The solar wind density you quote is for earth orbit (hypertextbook.com/facts/2005/RandyAbbas.shtml). Presumably density falls off as 1/r^2 as you get farther from the sun.
    – Peter Cordes
    2 hours ago










  • So they would want to send a 1-ton dart to make sure it all gets there?
    – corsiKa
    1 hour ago


















  • Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat.
    – L.Dutch
    6 hours ago










  • Typo: lightning, not lightening.
    – David Conrad
    5 hours ago










  • "over 100 AU that is 150,000 km"... that's one order of magnitude larger than the Earth.
    – kbelder
    4 hours ago






  • 1




    The solar wind density you quote is for earth orbit (hypertextbook.com/facts/2005/RandyAbbas.shtml). Presumably density falls off as 1/r^2 as you get farther from the sun.
    – Peter Cordes
    2 hours ago










  • So they would want to send a 1-ton dart to make sure it all gets there?
    – corsiKa
    1 hour ago
















Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat.
– L.Dutch
6 hours ago




Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat.
– L.Dutch
6 hours ago












Typo: lightning, not lightening.
– David Conrad
5 hours ago




Typo: lightning, not lightening.
– David Conrad
5 hours ago












"over 100 AU that is 150,000 km"... that's one order of magnitude larger than the Earth.
– kbelder
4 hours ago




"over 100 AU that is 150,000 km"... that's one order of magnitude larger than the Earth.
– kbelder
4 hours ago




1




1




The solar wind density you quote is for earth orbit (hypertextbook.com/facts/2005/RandyAbbas.shtml). Presumably density falls off as 1/r^2 as you get farther from the sun.
– Peter Cordes
2 hours ago




The solar wind density you quote is for earth orbit (hypertextbook.com/facts/2005/RandyAbbas.shtml). Presumably density falls off as 1/r^2 as you get farther from the sun.
– Peter Cordes
2 hours ago












So they would want to send a 1-ton dart to make sure it all gets there?
– corsiKa
1 hour ago




So they would want to send a 1-ton dart to make sure it all gets there?
– corsiKa
1 hour ago










up vote
25
down vote













According to WolphramAlpha, the relativistic kinetic energy of such a bullet would be $6.265 cdot 10^{21} mathrm J$, or 1.5 million megatons.



The gravitational binding energy of Earth is $2 cdot 10^{32} mathrm J$, therefore we can stay assured that the planet won't be completely wiped out.



Quoting from this useful page, the impact energy would be comparable to the last eruption of Yellowstone super volcano. This event left a large deposit of tuffs, known as Lava Creek Tuffs. The following picture shows their extension:



enter image description here




The Lava Creek Tuff is distributed in a radial pattern around the caldera and is formed of 1,000 km3 (240 cu mi) of ignimbrites.



Lava Creek Tuff ranges in color from light gray to pale red in some locales. Rock texture of the tuff ranges from fine-grained to aphanitic and is densely welded. The maximum thickness of the tuff layer is approximately 180–200 m.




The relativistic impact would be for sure a global cataclysm: the spallation would probably temporarily deform the planet, and the following relaxation would result in increased volcanic activity.



The resulting emission of ashes and gases would severely impact life, with mass extinction effect.



An observer in a suitable position in the Solar system would notice a bright flash during the impact, probably followed by an increased IR emission due to the thermal effects of volcanic eruptions.



To give you a reference of how bright would the flash, the impact energy is about 1/10 of the total solar energy striking the Earth in one day, and it is released in a much shorter time. I assume that for few seconds the Sun and Earth would appear like twin stars in the sky.






share|improve this answer























  • You might add that it corresponds to (gamma-1)mc². Where gamma=1/sqrt(1-(v/c)²). And furthermore, that would be the equivalent of about 30,000 Tsar bomba exploding at once.
    – bilbo_pingouin
    19 hours ago






  • 4




    "A bright flash" -- you can do better. How bright? "Can see in telescope", "visible to the naked eye from Mars", "like a camera flash", "beings on mars go blind if looking in the direction of the the Earth".
    – Yakk
    13 hours ago










  • Care to explain how to do this in WA so that every smash my planet question can just point here?
    – Mazura
    3 hours ago










  • @Mazura, I just typed "relativistic kinetic energy" in WA, then input mass and velocity
    – L.Dutch
    3 hours ago










  • @Yakk, I have some details
    – L.Dutch
    3 hours ago















up vote
25
down vote













According to WolphramAlpha, the relativistic kinetic energy of such a bullet would be $6.265 cdot 10^{21} mathrm J$, or 1.5 million megatons.



The gravitational binding energy of Earth is $2 cdot 10^{32} mathrm J$, therefore we can stay assured that the planet won't be completely wiped out.



Quoting from this useful page, the impact energy would be comparable to the last eruption of Yellowstone super volcano. This event left a large deposit of tuffs, known as Lava Creek Tuffs. The following picture shows their extension:



enter image description here




The Lava Creek Tuff is distributed in a radial pattern around the caldera and is formed of 1,000 km3 (240 cu mi) of ignimbrites.



Lava Creek Tuff ranges in color from light gray to pale red in some locales. Rock texture of the tuff ranges from fine-grained to aphanitic and is densely welded. The maximum thickness of the tuff layer is approximately 180–200 m.




The relativistic impact would be for sure a global cataclysm: the spallation would probably temporarily deform the planet, and the following relaxation would result in increased volcanic activity.



The resulting emission of ashes and gases would severely impact life, with mass extinction effect.



An observer in a suitable position in the Solar system would notice a bright flash during the impact, probably followed by an increased IR emission due to the thermal effects of volcanic eruptions.



To give you a reference of how bright would the flash, the impact energy is about 1/10 of the total solar energy striking the Earth in one day, and it is released in a much shorter time. I assume that for few seconds the Sun and Earth would appear like twin stars in the sky.






share|improve this answer























  • You might add that it corresponds to (gamma-1)mc². Where gamma=1/sqrt(1-(v/c)²). And furthermore, that would be the equivalent of about 30,000 Tsar bomba exploding at once.
    – bilbo_pingouin
    19 hours ago






  • 4




    "A bright flash" -- you can do better. How bright? "Can see in telescope", "visible to the naked eye from Mars", "like a camera flash", "beings on mars go blind if looking in the direction of the the Earth".
    – Yakk
    13 hours ago










  • Care to explain how to do this in WA so that every smash my planet question can just point here?
    – Mazura
    3 hours ago










  • @Mazura, I just typed "relativistic kinetic energy" in WA, then input mass and velocity
    – L.Dutch
    3 hours ago










  • @Yakk, I have some details
    – L.Dutch
    3 hours ago













up vote
25
down vote










up vote
25
down vote









According to WolphramAlpha, the relativistic kinetic energy of such a bullet would be $6.265 cdot 10^{21} mathrm J$, or 1.5 million megatons.



The gravitational binding energy of Earth is $2 cdot 10^{32} mathrm J$, therefore we can stay assured that the planet won't be completely wiped out.



Quoting from this useful page, the impact energy would be comparable to the last eruption of Yellowstone super volcano. This event left a large deposit of tuffs, known as Lava Creek Tuffs. The following picture shows their extension:



enter image description here




The Lava Creek Tuff is distributed in a radial pattern around the caldera and is formed of 1,000 km3 (240 cu mi) of ignimbrites.



Lava Creek Tuff ranges in color from light gray to pale red in some locales. Rock texture of the tuff ranges from fine-grained to aphanitic and is densely welded. The maximum thickness of the tuff layer is approximately 180–200 m.




The relativistic impact would be for sure a global cataclysm: the spallation would probably temporarily deform the planet, and the following relaxation would result in increased volcanic activity.



The resulting emission of ashes and gases would severely impact life, with mass extinction effect.



An observer in a suitable position in the Solar system would notice a bright flash during the impact, probably followed by an increased IR emission due to the thermal effects of volcanic eruptions.



To give you a reference of how bright would the flash, the impact energy is about 1/10 of the total solar energy striking the Earth in one day, and it is released in a much shorter time. I assume that for few seconds the Sun and Earth would appear like twin stars in the sky.






share|improve this answer














According to WolphramAlpha, the relativistic kinetic energy of such a bullet would be $6.265 cdot 10^{21} mathrm J$, or 1.5 million megatons.



The gravitational binding energy of Earth is $2 cdot 10^{32} mathrm J$, therefore we can stay assured that the planet won't be completely wiped out.



Quoting from this useful page, the impact energy would be comparable to the last eruption of Yellowstone super volcano. This event left a large deposit of tuffs, known as Lava Creek Tuffs. The following picture shows their extension:



enter image description here




The Lava Creek Tuff is distributed in a radial pattern around the caldera and is formed of 1,000 km3 (240 cu mi) of ignimbrites.



Lava Creek Tuff ranges in color from light gray to pale red in some locales. Rock texture of the tuff ranges from fine-grained to aphanitic and is densely welded. The maximum thickness of the tuff layer is approximately 180–200 m.




The relativistic impact would be for sure a global cataclysm: the spallation would probably temporarily deform the planet, and the following relaxation would result in increased volcanic activity.



The resulting emission of ashes and gases would severely impact life, with mass extinction effect.



An observer in a suitable position in the Solar system would notice a bright flash during the impact, probably followed by an increased IR emission due to the thermal effects of volcanic eruptions.



To give you a reference of how bright would the flash, the impact energy is about 1/10 of the total solar energy striking the Earth in one day, and it is released in a much shorter time. I assume that for few seconds the Sun and Earth would appear like twin stars in the sky.







share|improve this answer














share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer








edited 3 hours ago

























answered 20 hours ago









L.Dutch

72.3k22175349




72.3k22175349












  • You might add that it corresponds to (gamma-1)mc². Where gamma=1/sqrt(1-(v/c)²). And furthermore, that would be the equivalent of about 30,000 Tsar bomba exploding at once.
    – bilbo_pingouin
    19 hours ago






  • 4




    "A bright flash" -- you can do better. How bright? "Can see in telescope", "visible to the naked eye from Mars", "like a camera flash", "beings on mars go blind if looking in the direction of the the Earth".
    – Yakk
    13 hours ago










  • Care to explain how to do this in WA so that every smash my planet question can just point here?
    – Mazura
    3 hours ago










  • @Mazura, I just typed "relativistic kinetic energy" in WA, then input mass and velocity
    – L.Dutch
    3 hours ago










  • @Yakk, I have some details
    – L.Dutch
    3 hours ago


















  • You might add that it corresponds to (gamma-1)mc². Where gamma=1/sqrt(1-(v/c)²). And furthermore, that would be the equivalent of about 30,000 Tsar bomba exploding at once.
    – bilbo_pingouin
    19 hours ago






  • 4




    "A bright flash" -- you can do better. How bright? "Can see in telescope", "visible to the naked eye from Mars", "like a camera flash", "beings on mars go blind if looking in the direction of the the Earth".
    – Yakk
    13 hours ago










  • Care to explain how to do this in WA so that every smash my planet question can just point here?
    – Mazura
    3 hours ago










  • @Mazura, I just typed "relativistic kinetic energy" in WA, then input mass and velocity
    – L.Dutch
    3 hours ago










  • @Yakk, I have some details
    – L.Dutch
    3 hours ago
















You might add that it corresponds to (gamma-1)mc². Where gamma=1/sqrt(1-(v/c)²). And furthermore, that would be the equivalent of about 30,000 Tsar bomba exploding at once.
– bilbo_pingouin
19 hours ago




You might add that it corresponds to (gamma-1)mc². Where gamma=1/sqrt(1-(v/c)²). And furthermore, that would be the equivalent of about 30,000 Tsar bomba exploding at once.
– bilbo_pingouin
19 hours ago




4




4




"A bright flash" -- you can do better. How bright? "Can see in telescope", "visible to the naked eye from Mars", "like a camera flash", "beings on mars go blind if looking in the direction of the the Earth".
– Yakk
13 hours ago




"A bright flash" -- you can do better. How bright? "Can see in telescope", "visible to the naked eye from Mars", "like a camera flash", "beings on mars go blind if looking in the direction of the the Earth".
– Yakk
13 hours ago












Care to explain how to do this in WA so that every smash my planet question can just point here?
– Mazura
3 hours ago




Care to explain how to do this in WA so that every smash my planet question can just point here?
– Mazura
3 hours ago












@Mazura, I just typed "relativistic kinetic energy" in WA, then input mass and velocity
– L.Dutch
3 hours ago




@Mazura, I just typed "relativistic kinetic energy" in WA, then input mass and velocity
– L.Dutch
3 hours ago












@Yakk, I have some details
– L.Dutch
3 hours ago




@Yakk, I have some details
– L.Dutch
3 hours ago










up vote
0
down vote













I can't show the precise math but I believe it's pretty certain that the projectile, although losing some energy when hiting the atmosphere (more even so if it crosses the Van Allen radiation belt), will have enough piercing power to go through the Earth's crust and upper mantle, plunging into the magmatic lower mantle, creating inner waves that would propagate to the nearest tectonic fault lines causing almost immediate eruption and earthquakes along those.



In the following years some of this energy will be transmitted to the other fault lines replicating seismic activity all over the world.



As al alternative, if the projectile pierces even further, into the outer or even inner core, this would alterate the global magnetic field.



Finally, it has been theorised that within the lower mantle there can be layers of cold materials, some pretty hard. If an object like that absorbs most of the impact I can imagine an orbital displacement of the Earth.






share|improve this answer










New contributor




Tomás is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.














  • 2




    Are you basing this belief on anything in particular?
    – Ben Barden
    10 hours ago










  • On the calculations made above, almost unlimited energy, almost instantáneous speed and the fact that tungsten is harder and denser than the earth. I assumed it's not natural tungsten but tungsten carbide.
    – Tomás
    9 hours ago






  • 2




    ...but the calculations made above indicate that that's not what will happen, and the energy isn't anything like unlimited. It's ever so slightly less than you'd get out of total mass-to-energy conversion of a ton of material - quite large, but not impossibly so. Likewise, the speed of light isn't instantaneous... and at those relative speeds, hardness and density very nearly don't matter.
    – Ben Barden
    9 hours ago










  • Agreed, but in the mesure that it does matter (because fission wouldn't be instantaneous) I laid some options as to what could happen with those impacts at different levels. I think of it as In one hand this proyectile behaves as a laser with decreasing energy. On the other hand as a relatively small bullet.
    – Tomás
    8 hours ago










  • I like this answer. But I would add it would knock the earth off its orbit also. Let’s reiterarte the “99.99” speed of light. That is POWERFUL! If not impossible. Ok, it is impossible.
    – Robus
    1 hour ago

















up vote
0
down vote













I can't show the precise math but I believe it's pretty certain that the projectile, although losing some energy when hiting the atmosphere (more even so if it crosses the Van Allen radiation belt), will have enough piercing power to go through the Earth's crust and upper mantle, plunging into the magmatic lower mantle, creating inner waves that would propagate to the nearest tectonic fault lines causing almost immediate eruption and earthquakes along those.



In the following years some of this energy will be transmitted to the other fault lines replicating seismic activity all over the world.



As al alternative, if the projectile pierces even further, into the outer or even inner core, this would alterate the global magnetic field.



Finally, it has been theorised that within the lower mantle there can be layers of cold materials, some pretty hard. If an object like that absorbs most of the impact I can imagine an orbital displacement of the Earth.






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New contributor




Tomás is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.














  • 2




    Are you basing this belief on anything in particular?
    – Ben Barden
    10 hours ago










  • On the calculations made above, almost unlimited energy, almost instantáneous speed and the fact that tungsten is harder and denser than the earth. I assumed it's not natural tungsten but tungsten carbide.
    – Tomás
    9 hours ago






  • 2




    ...but the calculations made above indicate that that's not what will happen, and the energy isn't anything like unlimited. It's ever so slightly less than you'd get out of total mass-to-energy conversion of a ton of material - quite large, but not impossibly so. Likewise, the speed of light isn't instantaneous... and at those relative speeds, hardness and density very nearly don't matter.
    – Ben Barden
    9 hours ago










  • Agreed, but in the mesure that it does matter (because fission wouldn't be instantaneous) I laid some options as to what could happen with those impacts at different levels. I think of it as In one hand this proyectile behaves as a laser with decreasing energy. On the other hand as a relatively small bullet.
    – Tomás
    8 hours ago










  • I like this answer. But I would add it would knock the earth off its orbit also. Let’s reiterarte the “99.99” speed of light. That is POWERFUL! If not impossible. Ok, it is impossible.
    – Robus
    1 hour ago















up vote
0
down vote










up vote
0
down vote









I can't show the precise math but I believe it's pretty certain that the projectile, although losing some energy when hiting the atmosphere (more even so if it crosses the Van Allen radiation belt), will have enough piercing power to go through the Earth's crust and upper mantle, plunging into the magmatic lower mantle, creating inner waves that would propagate to the nearest tectonic fault lines causing almost immediate eruption and earthquakes along those.



In the following years some of this energy will be transmitted to the other fault lines replicating seismic activity all over the world.



As al alternative, if the projectile pierces even further, into the outer or even inner core, this would alterate the global magnetic field.



Finally, it has been theorised that within the lower mantle there can be layers of cold materials, some pretty hard. If an object like that absorbs most of the impact I can imagine an orbital displacement of the Earth.






share|improve this answer










New contributor




Tomás is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.









I can't show the precise math but I believe it's pretty certain that the projectile, although losing some energy when hiting the atmosphere (more even so if it crosses the Van Allen radiation belt), will have enough piercing power to go through the Earth's crust and upper mantle, plunging into the magmatic lower mantle, creating inner waves that would propagate to the nearest tectonic fault lines causing almost immediate eruption and earthquakes along those.



In the following years some of this energy will be transmitted to the other fault lines replicating seismic activity all over the world.



As al alternative, if the projectile pierces even further, into the outer or even inner core, this would alterate the global magnetic field.



Finally, it has been theorised that within the lower mantle there can be layers of cold materials, some pretty hard. If an object like that absorbs most of the impact I can imagine an orbital displacement of the Earth.







share|improve this answer










New contributor




Tomás is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.









share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer








edited 11 hours ago









rek

6,4701351




6,4701351






New contributor




Tomás is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.









answered 11 hours ago









Tomás

576




576




New contributor




Tomás is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.





New contributor





Tomás is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.






Tomás is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.








  • 2




    Are you basing this belief on anything in particular?
    – Ben Barden
    10 hours ago










  • On the calculations made above, almost unlimited energy, almost instantáneous speed and the fact that tungsten is harder and denser than the earth. I assumed it's not natural tungsten but tungsten carbide.
    – Tomás
    9 hours ago






  • 2




    ...but the calculations made above indicate that that's not what will happen, and the energy isn't anything like unlimited. It's ever so slightly less than you'd get out of total mass-to-energy conversion of a ton of material - quite large, but not impossibly so. Likewise, the speed of light isn't instantaneous... and at those relative speeds, hardness and density very nearly don't matter.
    – Ben Barden
    9 hours ago










  • Agreed, but in the mesure that it does matter (because fission wouldn't be instantaneous) I laid some options as to what could happen with those impacts at different levels. I think of it as In one hand this proyectile behaves as a laser with decreasing energy. On the other hand as a relatively small bullet.
    – Tomás
    8 hours ago










  • I like this answer. But I would add it would knock the earth off its orbit also. Let’s reiterarte the “99.99” speed of light. That is POWERFUL! If not impossible. Ok, it is impossible.
    – Robus
    1 hour ago
















  • 2




    Are you basing this belief on anything in particular?
    – Ben Barden
    10 hours ago










  • On the calculations made above, almost unlimited energy, almost instantáneous speed and the fact that tungsten is harder and denser than the earth. I assumed it's not natural tungsten but tungsten carbide.
    – Tomás
    9 hours ago






  • 2




    ...but the calculations made above indicate that that's not what will happen, and the energy isn't anything like unlimited. It's ever so slightly less than you'd get out of total mass-to-energy conversion of a ton of material - quite large, but not impossibly so. Likewise, the speed of light isn't instantaneous... and at those relative speeds, hardness and density very nearly don't matter.
    – Ben Barden
    9 hours ago










  • Agreed, but in the mesure that it does matter (because fission wouldn't be instantaneous) I laid some options as to what could happen with those impacts at different levels. I think of it as In one hand this proyectile behaves as a laser with decreasing energy. On the other hand as a relatively small bullet.
    – Tomás
    8 hours ago










  • I like this answer. But I would add it would knock the earth off its orbit also. Let’s reiterarte the “99.99” speed of light. That is POWERFUL! If not impossible. Ok, it is impossible.
    – Robus
    1 hour ago










2




2




Are you basing this belief on anything in particular?
– Ben Barden
10 hours ago




Are you basing this belief on anything in particular?
– Ben Barden
10 hours ago












On the calculations made above, almost unlimited energy, almost instantáneous speed and the fact that tungsten is harder and denser than the earth. I assumed it's not natural tungsten but tungsten carbide.
– Tomás
9 hours ago




On the calculations made above, almost unlimited energy, almost instantáneous speed and the fact that tungsten is harder and denser than the earth. I assumed it's not natural tungsten but tungsten carbide.
– Tomás
9 hours ago




2




2




...but the calculations made above indicate that that's not what will happen, and the energy isn't anything like unlimited. It's ever so slightly less than you'd get out of total mass-to-energy conversion of a ton of material - quite large, but not impossibly so. Likewise, the speed of light isn't instantaneous... and at those relative speeds, hardness and density very nearly don't matter.
– Ben Barden
9 hours ago




...but the calculations made above indicate that that's not what will happen, and the energy isn't anything like unlimited. It's ever so slightly less than you'd get out of total mass-to-energy conversion of a ton of material - quite large, but not impossibly so. Likewise, the speed of light isn't instantaneous... and at those relative speeds, hardness and density very nearly don't matter.
– Ben Barden
9 hours ago












Agreed, but in the mesure that it does matter (because fission wouldn't be instantaneous) I laid some options as to what could happen with those impacts at different levels. I think of it as In one hand this proyectile behaves as a laser with decreasing energy. On the other hand as a relatively small bullet.
– Tomás
8 hours ago




Agreed, but in the mesure that it does matter (because fission wouldn't be instantaneous) I laid some options as to what could happen with those impacts at different levels. I think of it as In one hand this proyectile behaves as a laser with decreasing energy. On the other hand as a relatively small bullet.
– Tomás
8 hours ago












I like this answer. But I would add it would knock the earth off its orbit also. Let’s reiterarte the “99.99” speed of light. That is POWERFUL! If not impossible. Ok, it is impossible.
– Robus
1 hour ago






I like this answer. But I would add it would knock the earth off its orbit also. Let’s reiterarte the “99.99” speed of light. That is POWERFUL! If not impossible. Ok, it is impossible.
– Robus
1 hour ago












up vote
-4
down vote













boom



I think that with the size and speed it would be quite powerful. First of all the impact would be virtually instantaneous. This would cause all the force to be extremely concentrated. If it's moving 99% the speed of light, well, imagine all that power compressed into a second--now imagine it being a million times faster than that. Now imagine it being WAY faster than that. The damage of the impact is going to be based on the force multiplied by the inverse of time--and as time approaches zero...






share|improve this answer



















  • 3




    Cool image, but nothing like what would really happen.
    – zeta-band
    8 hours ago










  • In the baseball XKCD what-if.xkcd.com/1 mentioned above, the ball is much less dense and MUCH slower. It might not go straight through but it would definitely be life-ending. The diamond one would be closer: "The energy cracks a hole in the crust and blows open a crater so big you can see the molten mantle. This delivers the energy of 50 dinosaur-killing Chicxulub impacts—enough to cause a mass extinction, if not end life completely." (Although the diamond they are talking about is bigger I think it would be more or less on that scale)
    – Bill K
    8 hours ago












  • Even if ti hits the surface relatively intact, I doubt it penetrates deeper than a couple of miles, the vaporized tungsten is going to interact with the rock really strongly.
    – zeta-band
    8 hours ago






  • 1




    The question was if it hit the world, but as the XKCD does anything traveling at that speed would not be intact to start out with. It also wouldn't impact so much as phase. It would also be a strange shaped and be enveloped in a giant fireball with the power of multiple nuclear bombs behind it. With a speed like that it wouldn't have any time to break up and wouldn't actually interact much with the atoms it passes through. I'm thinking you are only considering normal physics and not relativistic.
    – Bill K
    6 hours ago















up vote
-4
down vote













boom



I think that with the size and speed it would be quite powerful. First of all the impact would be virtually instantaneous. This would cause all the force to be extremely concentrated. If it's moving 99% the speed of light, well, imagine all that power compressed into a second--now imagine it being a million times faster than that. Now imagine it being WAY faster than that. The damage of the impact is going to be based on the force multiplied by the inverse of time--and as time approaches zero...






share|improve this answer



















  • 3




    Cool image, but nothing like what would really happen.
    – zeta-band
    8 hours ago










  • In the baseball XKCD what-if.xkcd.com/1 mentioned above, the ball is much less dense and MUCH slower. It might not go straight through but it would definitely be life-ending. The diamond one would be closer: "The energy cracks a hole in the crust and blows open a crater so big you can see the molten mantle. This delivers the energy of 50 dinosaur-killing Chicxulub impacts—enough to cause a mass extinction, if not end life completely." (Although the diamond they are talking about is bigger I think it would be more or less on that scale)
    – Bill K
    8 hours ago












  • Even if ti hits the surface relatively intact, I doubt it penetrates deeper than a couple of miles, the vaporized tungsten is going to interact with the rock really strongly.
    – zeta-band
    8 hours ago






  • 1




    The question was if it hit the world, but as the XKCD does anything traveling at that speed would not be intact to start out with. It also wouldn't impact so much as phase. It would also be a strange shaped and be enveloped in a giant fireball with the power of multiple nuclear bombs behind it. With a speed like that it wouldn't have any time to break up and wouldn't actually interact much with the atoms it passes through. I'm thinking you are only considering normal physics and not relativistic.
    – Bill K
    6 hours ago













up vote
-4
down vote










up vote
-4
down vote









boom



I think that with the size and speed it would be quite powerful. First of all the impact would be virtually instantaneous. This would cause all the force to be extremely concentrated. If it's moving 99% the speed of light, well, imagine all that power compressed into a second--now imagine it being a million times faster than that. Now imagine it being WAY faster than that. The damage of the impact is going to be based on the force multiplied by the inverse of time--and as time approaches zero...






share|improve this answer














boom



I think that with the size and speed it would be quite powerful. First of all the impact would be virtually instantaneous. This would cause all the force to be extremely concentrated. If it's moving 99% the speed of light, well, imagine all that power compressed into a second--now imagine it being a million times faster than that. Now imagine it being WAY faster than that. The damage of the impact is going to be based on the force multiplied by the inverse of time--and as time approaches zero...







share|improve this answer














share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer








edited 10 hours ago

























answered 10 hours ago









Bill K

90757




90757








  • 3




    Cool image, but nothing like what would really happen.
    – zeta-band
    8 hours ago










  • In the baseball XKCD what-if.xkcd.com/1 mentioned above, the ball is much less dense and MUCH slower. It might not go straight through but it would definitely be life-ending. The diamond one would be closer: "The energy cracks a hole in the crust and blows open a crater so big you can see the molten mantle. This delivers the energy of 50 dinosaur-killing Chicxulub impacts—enough to cause a mass extinction, if not end life completely." (Although the diamond they are talking about is bigger I think it would be more or less on that scale)
    – Bill K
    8 hours ago












  • Even if ti hits the surface relatively intact, I doubt it penetrates deeper than a couple of miles, the vaporized tungsten is going to interact with the rock really strongly.
    – zeta-band
    8 hours ago






  • 1




    The question was if it hit the world, but as the XKCD does anything traveling at that speed would not be intact to start out with. It also wouldn't impact so much as phase. It would also be a strange shaped and be enveloped in a giant fireball with the power of multiple nuclear bombs behind it. With a speed like that it wouldn't have any time to break up and wouldn't actually interact much with the atoms it passes through. I'm thinking you are only considering normal physics and not relativistic.
    – Bill K
    6 hours ago














  • 3




    Cool image, but nothing like what would really happen.
    – zeta-band
    8 hours ago










  • In the baseball XKCD what-if.xkcd.com/1 mentioned above, the ball is much less dense and MUCH slower. It might not go straight through but it would definitely be life-ending. The diamond one would be closer: "The energy cracks a hole in the crust and blows open a crater so big you can see the molten mantle. This delivers the energy of 50 dinosaur-killing Chicxulub impacts—enough to cause a mass extinction, if not end life completely." (Although the diamond they are talking about is bigger I think it would be more or less on that scale)
    – Bill K
    8 hours ago












  • Even if ti hits the surface relatively intact, I doubt it penetrates deeper than a couple of miles, the vaporized tungsten is going to interact with the rock really strongly.
    – zeta-band
    8 hours ago






  • 1




    The question was if it hit the world, but as the XKCD does anything traveling at that speed would not be intact to start out with. It also wouldn't impact so much as phase. It would also be a strange shaped and be enveloped in a giant fireball with the power of multiple nuclear bombs behind it. With a speed like that it wouldn't have any time to break up and wouldn't actually interact much with the atoms it passes through. I'm thinking you are only considering normal physics and not relativistic.
    – Bill K
    6 hours ago








3




3




Cool image, but nothing like what would really happen.
– zeta-band
8 hours ago




Cool image, but nothing like what would really happen.
– zeta-band
8 hours ago












In the baseball XKCD what-if.xkcd.com/1 mentioned above, the ball is much less dense and MUCH slower. It might not go straight through but it would definitely be life-ending. The diamond one would be closer: "The energy cracks a hole in the crust and blows open a crater so big you can see the molten mantle. This delivers the energy of 50 dinosaur-killing Chicxulub impacts—enough to cause a mass extinction, if not end life completely." (Although the diamond they are talking about is bigger I think it would be more or less on that scale)
– Bill K
8 hours ago






In the baseball XKCD what-if.xkcd.com/1 mentioned above, the ball is much less dense and MUCH slower. It might not go straight through but it would definitely be life-ending. The diamond one would be closer: "The energy cracks a hole in the crust and blows open a crater so big you can see the molten mantle. This delivers the energy of 50 dinosaur-killing Chicxulub impacts—enough to cause a mass extinction, if not end life completely." (Although the diamond they are talking about is bigger I think it would be more or less on that scale)
– Bill K
8 hours ago














Even if ti hits the surface relatively intact, I doubt it penetrates deeper than a couple of miles, the vaporized tungsten is going to interact with the rock really strongly.
– zeta-band
8 hours ago




Even if ti hits the surface relatively intact, I doubt it penetrates deeper than a couple of miles, the vaporized tungsten is going to interact with the rock really strongly.
– zeta-band
8 hours ago




1




1




The question was if it hit the world, but as the XKCD does anything traveling at that speed would not be intact to start out with. It also wouldn't impact so much as phase. It would also be a strange shaped and be enveloped in a giant fireball with the power of multiple nuclear bombs behind it. With a speed like that it wouldn't have any time to break up and wouldn't actually interact much with the atoms it passes through. I'm thinking you are only considering normal physics and not relativistic.
– Bill K
6 hours ago




The question was if it hit the world, but as the XKCD does anything traveling at that speed would not be intact to start out with. It also wouldn't impact so much as phase. It would also be a strange shaped and be enveloped in a giant fireball with the power of multiple nuclear bombs behind it. With a speed like that it wouldn't have any time to break up and wouldn't actually interact much with the atoms it passes through. I'm thinking you are only considering normal physics and not relativistic.
– Bill K
6 hours ago










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