NASA asteroid warning: 700 foot space rock on risk trajectory with Earth in 2023

express.co.uk

15 pointskostaddin3 comments

Estimated mass: 1.51e10 kg - heavier than the Great Pyramid of Giza but lighter than the Three Gorges Dam

(4/3) * pi * (213/2 [m])^3 * 3 [g/cm^3]

Mean diameter: 213m

Kinetic energy is 0.5 * m * v^2, so figure 10 [km/s] which works out to 7.59e17 [J] or 181 MT of KE total. The airburst is around the square root of that, so 13.5 MT.

If it hit just right, it would be big enough to wipe out a large city metropolitan area. The odds of it hitting at all aren't that great.

Postscript: There ought to be a scifi weapon that flings pyramids.

> Postscript: There ought to be a scifi weapon that flings pyramids.

Theres a recurring trope of advanced civilizations (human or alien) using directed asteroids as weapons. In this case Starship Troopers is the first example that comes to mind.

Babylon 5 has this. Available in the U.S. on Amazon Prime (no affiliation; just know many have an account) as of a few months ago.

I'd never seen it coherently, all the way through. I really enjoyed watching it again, and fully.

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