# Humans + asteroid = nuclear explosion! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 24, 2002, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-asteroid-nuclear-explosion/120656 "2002-07-24T23:59:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-asteroid-nuclear-explosion/120656/1 "2002-07-24T23:59:40Z")
[http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20020724\_409.html](http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20020724_409.html) > [@](#): > > Last month an asteroid the size of a soccer field missed the Earth by 75,000 miles less than one-third of the distance to the moon in one of the closest known approaches by objects of its size. Scientists said if it had hit a populated area, it would have released as much energy as a large nuclear weapon. Wow, let’s hope when an asteroid hits the earth, it hits an unpopulated area so it doesn’t release so much energy! ---
**Author:** ![Astroboy14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/df705f/32.png) [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-asteroid-nuclear-explosion/120656/2 "2002-07-25T00:40:40Z")
Oh yeah? [Right back at ya!](http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/space/07/24/asteroid.encounter.ap/index.html) 😉 I’m not too worried, however… they probably have Bruce Willis training up right now. FWIW, the reason that the explosion would be so much greater if the impact were in a populated area: Tequila is flammable! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![G.Nome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c89c15/32.png) [@G.Nome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G.Nome)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-asteroid-nuclear-explosion/120656/3 "2002-07-25T05:28:14Z")
I’m guessing that if the day and the year of impact is known (February 1, 2019) the chances of the place being known is quite high. Am I right or wrong? Which side of the earth is now known as the ‘good side’ in some circles? Science input needed. ---
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-asteroid-nuclear-explosion/120656/4 "2002-07-25T07:20:02Z")
Must have been moving pretty fast to not get snagged into an orbit or sucked into hitting the earth. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-asteroid-nuclear-explosion/120656/5 "2002-07-25T10:15:45Z")
When an asteroid collides with a planet and there is no population nearby to observe it, does it explode? ---
**Author:** ![EggNogg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/eb8c5e/32.png) [@EggNogg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EggNogg)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-asteroid-nuclear-explosion/120656/6 "2002-07-25T10:40:33Z")
A nuclear winter would balence out that global warming crap.🙂 egg ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-asteroid-nuclear-explosion/120656/7 "2002-07-25T10:47:04Z")
It wouldn’t be a nuclear blast. That’s just the closest thing we have to compare it to. It would be akin to hitting a huge ball of dirt and rock with a good-sized marble: A lot of dust, a good-sized crater, and some very confused insects. It would severely disrupt the layout of a continent by giving the tectonic plates a whacking and shifting around the underlying magma, but the main effect would be the climatological one: A shitload of dust in the air would make things a lot colder. It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![EggNogg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/eb8c5e/32.png) [@EggNogg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EggNogg)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-asteroid-nuclear-explosion/120656/8 "2002-07-25T10:55:44Z")
A meteor hit would cause so much dust and smoke, that the sun would be blocked from view and what is commonly know as nuclear winter would ensue. It would have the same effects as a nuclear strike minus the radiation. egg ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-asteroid-nuclear-explosion/120656/9 "2002-07-25T11:29:50Z")
Can’t we just move the Earth out of the way? ---
**Author:** ![LolaCocaCola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7cd45c/32.png) [@LolaCocaCola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LolaCocaCola)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-asteroid-nuclear-explosion/120656/10 "2002-07-25T11:38:49Z")
The impact would happen on my birthday. So, when they say “hope yer b’day’s a blast!”, they won’t be kidding! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-asteroid-nuclear-explosion/120656/11 "2002-07-25T12:46:46Z")
_Now_ I know why Lance Bass is flying into space. In 19 years he’s leading a mission to another planet! ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-asteroid-nuclear-explosion/120656/12 "2002-07-25T12:50:10Z")
All you gotta do is let off a nuke near enough to the thing to alter its orbit, if you have this much warning. What you don’t want to do is blow it up when it’s close (like in those two movies), in which case you rain huge chunks of it onto the Earth. I almost hope they have to try the orbit-change thing, so they we can see cool pictures of it. I’m sure the gov’t will have no trouble breaking that treaty that forbids nuclear explosions in space. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-asteroid-nuclear-explosion/120656/13 "2002-07-25T12:59:29Z")
The world’s coming to an end! :eek: I’m moving to Canada! [sub]Actually, I stole that from a short film called _Psychic Parrot_ that came out in the 1970s/1980s.[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Pythagoras](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@Pythagoras](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pythagoras)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-asteroid-nuclear-explosion/120656/14 "2002-07-25T13:09:04Z")
**Revtim** there’s nothing logically wrong with: > [@](#): > > if it had hit a populated area, it would have released as much energy as a large nuclear weapon. it is logically true, this does not necesarilly make the following statement false: > [@](#): > > if it had NOT hit a populated area, it would have released as much energy as a large nuclear weapon. ---
**Author:** ![Skeezix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/839c29/32.png) [@Skeezix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skeezix)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-asteroid-nuclear-explosion/120656/15 "2002-07-25T13:17:17Z")
Erm, is it too early for someone to contact Chicken Little’s oldest surviving descendant at this point? [sub]Oh, my, what if it **is** Bruce Willis?[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-asteroid-nuclear-explosion/120656/16 "2002-07-25T14:51:17Z")
Pyth, you must admit that sentences formed that way **imply** that the first part (“if it had hit a pop. area”) is a necessary condition for the second part (“would have released…”). Otherwise, why mention the first part? I like how you are fighting analness with analness, though. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-asteroid-nuclear-explosion/120656/17 "2002-07-25T15:46:23Z")
> [@](#): > > Last month an asteroid the size of a soccer field missed the Earth by 75,000 miles So what if it had hit?; we’re only taking about the deaths of 22 people (OK, 23 including the referee) and that’s only if there happened to be a game in progress at the time of impact. Sheesh, more people than that get killed every day in sexual accidents with vacuum cleaners. ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-asteroid-nuclear-explosion/120656/18 "2002-07-25T17:28:04Z")
Frankly, I hope it’s coming. It gives us enough time to do something about it. The technology that would sprout from the project would be amazing, and the whole planet might just stop squabbling for a little bit and realize that we’re all on this little rock together. That, and I hope it’s made out of rocky road ice cream. The kind with marshmallows. ---
**Author:** ![peasea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc79bd/32.png) [@peasea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peasea)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-asteroid-nuclear-explosion/120656/19 "2002-07-25T19:52:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Revtim \* > \*\*I like how you are fighting analness with analness, though. \*\* How’s this for a bit of anal quoting (not to be confused with talking out of your ass): “…as we get additional data I think this threat will go away.” Apparently, the Heisenberg principle works on a macro level, and scientific observations will actually change the course of this asteroid. I’m sorry, but either there is a threat or there isn’t. Just having the wrong calculations doesn’t change the chances of getting hit.