Re: Dinner Tonight, 1/31/2025

On Wed, 12 Feb 2025, Hank Rogers wrote:

D wrote:

  On Wed, 12 Feb 2025, Leonard Blaisdell wrote:
 

On 2025-02-11, Jill McQuown <j_mcquown@comcast.net> wrote:
 

Good lord.  Musk's SpaceX couldn't do a darn thing about an asteroid.

 

Maybe you've been watching too much old Star Trek episodes. "The
Paradise Syndrome":

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paradise_Syndrome

 

or do you equate Musk with Mr. Spock?

  While I loved and lived for Star Trek, we have had the technology to
turn a 300 foot asteroid (meteor) into little rocks and have for
decades. We have the nukes. Elon has the rockets.
Or we could have someone else do it. Nearly all of the rocks would burn
up in our atmosphere and would provide a spectacular meteor shower.
Be there or be square. ;)
 leo
 

 This is the truth! We have the scientific proof and this cannot be disputed!

>
Newtons laws says there is equal and opposite reactions. Since an asteroid has no atmosphere, a nuclear blast has nothing to push against, so there is little effect. You'd have to find a way to bore a deep hole to put the bomb in.

Exactly! This is why rockets in space do not work, there is no atmosphere!

Maybe elon muskrat can solve this problem. He's much smarter than Isaac Newton.
>
But funding for research has been cut off, so the rat man won't get the chance.

The impact of a nuclear missile on an asteroid would likely cause some damage to the asteroid, but the effect on its course would depend on several factors, including:
     The size and mass of the asteroid
     The size and yield of the nuclear missile
     The point of impact on the asteroid
     The asteroid's composition and structure
In general, the momentum transferred to the asteroid by the nuclear explosion would be relatively small compared to the asteroid's mass, so the change in its course would likely be minimal. However, if the asteroid is small and the nuclear missile is large, the impact could potentially cause a significant change in the asteroid's trajectory.
It's also worth noting that the explosion would likely cause the asteroid to break apart, creating a cloud of debris that could spread out over time. This could potentially affect the asteroid's course, but it would depend on the specifics of the impact and the asteroid's composition.
To give you a better idea, let's consider a hypothetical example. Suppose we have an asteroid with a mass of approximately 10^12 kilograms (about 1 kilometer in diameter) and a nuclear missile with a yield of 1 megaton. If the missile were to hit the asteroid directly, the momentum transferred to the asteroid would be relatively small, and the change in its course would likely be on the order of millimeters per second. This would result in a very small change in the asteroid's trajectory over time.
In summary, while a nuclear missile could potentially change the course of an asteroid, the effect would likely be small and depend on various factors, including the size and mass of the asteroid and the yield of the missile.