- 230
- 12
What would be the Ap of a hypothetical meteor that's the result of all the asteroids in the asteroid belt of the solar system combining into one and entering earth's atmosphere at re-entry speed?
Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
Thanks, do you happen to know the ap if it collided with earth at the same speed, if that can be done?Though, a meteor moving at re-entry speed would take a VERY long time to reach Earth if it started moving from the asteroid belt.
The asteroid belt spans ~3.2 AU to 4.2 AU away from Earth.
And doing some quick math, it would take the meteor:
~2.17 to 2.85 years to reach Earth if it moved at that speed.
And it cannot take any shorter than ~0.44 to 0.58 hours to reach Earth (depending on exact start distance in the belt), otherwise it would reach SoL speed; which then kinetic energy cannot be used.
Though if something like "half an hour before collision" or "an hour before collision" happened, then that could be used; which could yield pretty high relativistic KE.
Thanks again, one more thing. Would you happen to know a time frame starting from the same origin where the result would be in the 5-B range?Depends on the exact timeframe and distance (as depending on where and how long it takes, will decide if KE can be used)
But to make it easy, let's say it takes an hour and the origin is at the center of the asteroid belt (3.7 AU away from Earth)
3.7 AU = 553,512,121,590 meters
1 hour = 3,600 seconds
553,512,121,590 / 3,600 =
153,753,367.10833 m/s, or ~0.51287 SoL (Relativistic+ speed)
Popping that into a Relativistic KE calc:
3.541e+37 joules
Or ~8.463 Ronnatons of TNT (Large Planet level+)