# How does a planet explode? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 19, 2011, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-planet-explode/586000 "2011-06-19T02:34:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![ministryman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@ministryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ministryman)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-planet-explode/586000/41 "2011-06-20T18:11:07Z")
first, you insert a very long tube until it just touches the core. Then, you shoot a big piece of antimatter down the tube, encased in a magnetic bottle with a timer. When the antimatter hits the core… ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-planet-explode/586000/42 "2011-06-20T19:38:07Z")
If the sun got hotter, it would expand depending on that temperature. (Expanding also cools it. The sun is currently in relative equilibrium.) If you slowly heated the Earth to the temperature of the Sun, the glowing briquette would have a diameter greater than the 12,700km it currently is. It wouldn’t “fly” apart if the heating was gradual enough. If you were some how able to suddenly heat one side of the planet several million degrees, would not the crust turn into plasma and jet away from the core? Edit: Sorry, I just saw Star Wars Ep. IV, and was thinking of the case of _Death Star v. Alderaan_. ---
**Author:** ![\_Undecided\_Adrian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/eada6e/32.png) [@\_Undecided\_Adrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_Undecided_Adrian)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-planet-explode/586000/43 "2011-06-20T22:00:56Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Shortly after the original _Star Wars_ came out, they discussed how much energy would be required to blow up a planet in _American Journal of Physics_. as The Bad Astronomer and others pointed out, it’s a heckuva lot of energy. Better to just smash an asteroid into it, or something. An Asteroid is not nearly enough. A Mars-sized body collided and merged with the Earth in the early days of the solar system and Earth is still here. Some quotes from the [site](http://qntm.org/destroy) that **Superfluous Parentheses** mentioned: > [@](#): > > Destroying the Earth is harder than you may have been led to believe. > > You’ve seen the action movies where the bad guy threatens to destroy the Earth. You’ve heard people on the news claiming that the next nuclear war or cutting down rainforests or persisting in releasing hideous quantities of pollution into the atmosphere threatens to end the world. > > Fools. > > The Earth is built to _last_. It is a 4,550,000,000-year-old, 5,973,600,000,000,000,000,000-tonne _ball of iron_. It has taken more devastating asteroid hits in its lifetime than you’ve had hot dinners, and lo, it still orbits merrily. So my first piece of advice to you, dear would-be Earth-destroyer, is: do NOT think this will be easy. > [@](#): > > There is evidence that in the past, asteroids have hit the Earth with the explosive yield of five billion Hiroshima bombs - and such evidence is _difficult to find_. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-planet-explode/586000/44 "2011-06-20T22:12:32Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > The former’ motives should be obvious; while Darkseid would see the potential for the Kryptonians as slave, he might ultimately decide that billions of humanoids, each of whom, as an adult, is mightier than his most powerful servants, was too much of a risk. Darkseid would go on to enslave the Daxamites (and force them to reshape Daxam into an image of his head), so I don’t think this really works. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-planet-explode/586000/45 "2011-06-20T22:16:24Z")
> [@Tengu](#): > > Darkseid would go on to enslave the Daxamites (and force them to reshape Daxam into an image of his head), so I don’t think this really works. That was pre-Crisis continuity, sir. I’m talking post-Crisis. That said, in the Great Darkness Saga (wonderful story, even if misnamed), Darkseid didn’t know about Daxam until he probed Mon-El’s mind, so I can imagine him having fucked with Krypton in the far-distant past before the colonists left for Daxam. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-planet-explode/586000/46 "2011-06-20T23:10:50Z")
> [@mlees](#): > > If the sun got hotter, it would expand depending on that temperature. (Expanding also cools it. The sun is currently in relative equilibrium.) > > If you slowly heated the Earth to the temperature of the Sun, the glowing briquette would have a diameter greater than the 12,700km it currently is. It wouldn’t “fly” apart if the heating was gradual enough. Hmmm . . . If gravity everywhere in Cislunar space were suddenly reversed – how long would it take, I wonder, for Earth’s matter to break its chemical bonds and fly every which way? ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-planet-explode/586000/47 "2011-06-20T23:25:11Z")
> [@ministryman](#): > > first, you insert a very long tube until it just touches the core. Then, you shoot a big piece of antimatter down the tube, encased in a magnetic bottle with a timer. When the antimatter hits the core… I read a book in which blobs of anti-neutronium and neutronium were dropped into the Earth - they oscillated inside the earth for a while, but friction eventually resulted in them coming to rest at the center of the Earth, and “boom” ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-planet-explode/586000/48 "2011-06-20T23:56:29Z")
It just takes some red matter. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-planet-explode/586000/49 "2011-06-21T00:09:42Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > I read a book in which blobs of anti-neutronium and neutronium were dropped into the Earth - they oscillated inside the earth for a while, but friction eventually resulted in them coming to rest at the center of the Earth, and “boom” [The Forge of God](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Forge_of_God) by Greg Bear. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-planet-explode/586000/50 "2011-06-21T03:36:22Z")
> [@](#): > > An Asteroid is not nearly enough. A Mars-sized body collided and merged with the Earth in the early days of the solar system and Earth is still here. I don’t mean to smash it into bits – I mean that it’s better to smash an asteroid into it if you want to obliterate all life on it. Try to keep a sense of proportion. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-planet-explode/586000/51 "2011-06-21T03:37:34Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > It just takes some red matter. That won’t make it explode – it’ll just suck it into a Black Hole. Since Red Matter can create Black Holes, you should keep it out of the reach of miners. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-planet-explode/586000/52 "2011-06-21T03:52:02Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I don’t mean to smash it into bits – I mean that it’s better to smash an asteroid into it if you want to obliterate all life on it. > > Try to keep a sense of proportion. And how many extinction-level events has Earth’s biosphere survived so far? Several, yes? ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-planet-explode/586000/53 "2011-06-21T04:05:03Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > That won’t make it explode – it’ll just suck it into a Black Hole. > Since Red Matter can create Black Holes, you should keep it out of the reach of miners. You’d still think that in the “Federation’s Fastest Ship” - Spock could’ve evaded capture - and if a drop will do you, maybe not take so darn much with you? ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-planet-explode/586000/54 "2011-06-21T06:56:10Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Hmmm . . . If gravity everywhere in Cislunar space were suddenly reversed – how long would it take, I wonder, for Earth’s matter to break its chemical bonds and fly every which way? What? Is this a fancy way of saying I’m an idiot? ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-planet-explode/586000/55 "2011-06-21T11:49:00Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > And how many extinction-level events has Earth’s biosphere survived so far? Several, yes? None, if you are speaking of biosphere extinction level events. An event that kills a bunch of species like the one that killed the dinosaurs isn’t in the same league as something that renders the Earth molten again. Nothing survives if the planet is turned into a ball of magma; some scientists think that life may have arisen multiple times early in Earth’s history only to be fried along with everything else when the next impact melted the planetary surface again. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-planet-explode/586000/56 "2011-06-21T12:14:17Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > None, if you are speaking of biosphere extinction level events. An event that kills a bunch of species like the one that killed the dinosaurs isn’t in the same league as something that renders the Earth molten again. Nothing survives if the planet is turned into a ball of magma; some scientists think that life may have arisen multiple times early in Earth’s history only to be fried along with everything else when the next impact melted the planetary surface again. To expand: Given that making the planet fly off in many bits like a hand grenade seems a bit ludicrous even for The Force, what was mentioned in the Alderaan-type scenario was that such a thing was unnecessary, as to “destroy” a planet in the sense that’s useful to the Empire it would suffice to just drop the nearest Large Asteroid/Dwarf Planet on it. That a large lump of ferrous rock will probably still be in its orbit until the star goes RG is little consolation. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-planet-explode/586000/57 "2011-06-21T13:07:21Z")
> [@Tangent](#): > > Everybody knows the Earth’s center is filled with dynamnite and it’s connected to a lever that pokes out of the ground so that if the lever is thrown, then KABLOOIE! And that lever is guarded by Nate the snake. I hope I never step on him. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-planet-explode/586000/58 "2011-06-21T14:01:22Z")
> [@mlees](#): > > What? Is this a fancy way of saying I’m an idiot? My bad, I meant to reply to post #39. ---
**Author:** ![Find\_Friends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@Find\_Friends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Find_Friends)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-planet-explode/586000/59 "2011-06-21T14:33:27Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > … Although, you would have thought she could have gotten his little dog, too. What’ya mean, Krypto?! ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-planet-explode/586000/60 "2011-06-21T14:43:03Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > My bad, I meant to reply to post #39. Ok, good. I don’t have to go pout. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-planet-explode/586000.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-planet-explode/586000.md?page=4)