Nuclear detonation

[Sean Clayden]

What would be the effect of a nuclear detonation in space ? For instance, if we were able to destroy or deflect and asteroid, what would the impact be on our solar system. :confused:

[Ad Hominid]

What would be the effect of a nuclear detonation in space ? For instance, if we were able to destroy or deflect and asteroid, what would the impact be on our solar system. :confused:

I am not sure what you mean by an impact on the solar system.
Both asteroids and nuclear bombs are insignificant compared to the energies and masses present in the solar system. There are many thousands of asteroids and very good evidence that they collide frequently (in terms of cosmic time), so a catastrophe to one of them would be nothing new or especially unusual.

The interaction of energy and mass across the solar system as a whole is enormously greater than what would be involved in the destruction of a single asteroid. It is also unlikely that a nuclear device could accomplish even that unless the asteroid is a very small one. It is easier for a nuclear explosion to deflect an asteroid. The effects of this would be comparable to natural changes in orbit caused by any number of factors, including collisions and close passages to massive bodies. It basically wouldn't change anything in the overall scheme of things, beyond the changes that nature makes as a matter of course.


As for effects, there were a number of nuclear test explosions (http://www.cddc.vt.edu/host/atomic/atmosphr/ustests.html) in space before the Test-Ban Treaty of 1963.

[JustAFriend]

We've already exploded nuclear warheads in space back in the late '50s.

Look around the web, there are even photos.

That was how we found out about EMPs (electromagnetic pulses) when a space shot over the Pacific caused problems all the way to Hawaii.

Go to Google and you can find out plenty on the effects.

[Sean Clayden]

Thanks

[Noclevername]

What would be the effect of a nuclear detonation in space ?

It could crack open the Phantom Zone and release General Zod. :lol:

[Ara Pacis]

It would release lots of gamma/x-rays. That can be used to deflect asteroids via ablation thrust. If placed inside an asteroid, it would vaporize and blast it apart with a shockwave casued by the expanding vapor and gasses from the vaporized rock. This could shatter the asteroid, possibly making it fly apart so that little of it would impinge upon the earth where it may have collided if it remained on course and whole.

[BigDon]

Ara, I know YOU know,

but for the folks playing at home breaking up a meteor is a common misconception popularized by fiction. Counter-intuitive, like leaning into a punch to reduce its impact. The fact is, that its preferable to take a solid hit than the hit of a reduced to gravel meteor.

Using the dino killer as an example, the Chixilub impactor actually expended most of its energy into the body of the Earth itself. But what little it did shed into the atmosphere heated the atmosphere of the Western Hemisphere to 350f for several hours.

A flying gravel pile that same mass and speed would have transmitted a much greater percentage of its energy into the atmosphere. A lot more. So while you wouldn't have had the Carribean Sea being emptied and the water pushed into Texas like it did*, the new plasma atmosphere wouldn't have been able to continue to support life.





*The six mile wide impactor came in from south to north at a very low angle. Ancient Texas was standing in the muzzle opening

[Ara Pacis]

Yeah, I was going for the wide-dispersal scenario which must be done well in advance of impact if it has a chance to work as planned.

[Sean Clayden]

Would a nuclear detonation in space disrupt other meteorites flight paths and cause concern for more potential impacts ? And how does the blast wave from nuclear detonation dissipate as it travels through the cosmos ?

[Kaptain K]

Would a nuclear detonation in space disrupt other meteorites flight paths and cause concern for more potential impacts?
No!


And how does the blast wave from nuclear detonation dissipate as it travels through the cosmo?
Inverse square.

[Dave Mitsky]

As I understand it, there really isn't much of a "blast wave" to speak of when a nuclear weapon is detonated in space.

Dave Mitsky

[Sean Clayden]

OK, what is causing the universal expansion at present ?

[Ara Pacis]

Would a nuclear detonation in space disrupt other meteorites flight paths and cause concern for more potential impacts ?

If close enough they might be receive a shove, the nuclear energy release causes ablative thrusting. Also, vaporized bomb fragments might also impinge upon the mass, generating a thrust.


And how does the blast wave from nuclear detonation dissipate as it travels through the cosmos ?

There would not be much blast at all since there is no atmosphere in space. The nearest thing to a blast would be the expanding sphere of vaporized bomb material and the very minimal amount of interplanetary dust nearby. The blast expansion, being a volumetric effect, would be defined by the inverse cube law, IIRC.

[Sean Clayden]

So the big bang is expanding by what exactly ? Then what is causing the expansion if a nuclear denation wouldn't.

[WalrusLike]

So the big bang is expanding by what exactly ? Then what is causing the expansion if a nuclear denation wouldn't.

Sean, the questions you are asking are sensible and reasonable... the problem is that it is hard to get a good explanation into a little post of a few words.

If you have any method of playing mp3 files.... or better yet a ipod or suchlike... then I think that you would get the most info for the least effort... and enjoy the experience... by listening to the Astronomycast podcasts. They are free.

Fraser and Pamela make it very easy for laymen like me to understand much of the current thinking about the nature and history of our universe. You would probably enjoy listening to them since they seem to have that 'easy on the ears' effect.

They cover all of the topics that you have asked about... generally one per show. And make it understandable. Their website has a full catalog of the topics and lets you cherry pick the ones that you are interested in.

I personally would recommend them all... since I have often found interesting stuff in areas that I initially thought would not be something that I would be interested in...

http://www.astronomycast.com

[Sean Clayden]

Thank you WalrusLike

[WalrusLike]

Thank you WalrusLike

Your welcome.

[Dave Mitsky]

So the big bang is expanding by what exactly ? Then what is causing the expansion if a nuclear denation wouldn't.

According to theory, the Big Bang was not an explosion, nuclear or otherwise, despite the somewhat mocking name that Steady State theorist Fred Hoyle coined.

http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/nocenter.html

http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/GR/centre.html

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=0009F0CA-C523-1213-852383414B7F0147&page=2 (Ubiquitous Cosmic Traffic Jam)

http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/bigbang.html (2)

Dave Mitsky

[Sean Clayden]

The expansion, explosion of any source has a centre. Where is the centre of the universe ? The sites you have posted do not cover this............And how can space between galaxies expand ?

[mugaliens]

What would be the effect of a nuclear detonation in space ? For instance, if we were able to destroy or deflect and asteroid, what would the impact be on our solar system. :confused:

Beyound Earth's magnetic field, nothing. Within it, the ionizing radiation would fry nearly all of the electronics on Earth.

[Dave Mitsky]

The expansion, explosion of any source has a centre. Where is the centre of the universe ? The sites you have posted do not cover this............And how can space between galaxies expand ?

They do indeed. If you read the information at those sites carefully, you'll find that the Big Bang was not an explosion and thus has no center. Another way of looking at it is that everywhere is the center and that there is no favored position in the universe.

Perhaps the information at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_expansion_of_space will prove helpful.

Dave Mitsky

[Noclevername]

Beyound Earth's magnetic field, nothing. Within it, the ionizing radiation would fry nearly all of the electronics on Earth.

Depends on the size of the detonation. We've set off thermonuclear blasts in space before, and while it messed with communication it didn't kill everything electronic.

[Kaptain K]

Depends on the size of the detonation. We've set off thermonuclear blasts in space before, and while it messed with communication it didn't kill everything electronic.

That was back when most electronic equipment was vacuum tube and discreet component solid state. Not nearly as susceptible to EMP as modern LSI "computer on chip"!

[Ara Pacis]

Beyound Earth's magnetic field, nothing. Within it, the ionizing radiation would fry nearly all of the electronics on Earth.

I don't think that's entirely accurate, but I know what you meant.

It's not the ionizing radiation (Alpha and Beta particles, gamma rays and neutrons, all of which would be absorbed by the atmosphere and not reach the electronics on Earth) but the interaction of the gammas with the Earth's magnetifc field, resulting in an Electromagnetic Pulse (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_pulse). It would take lots of nukes in space to cause problems over the entire surface of the planet.

[blueshift]

The expansion, explosion of any source has a centre. Where is the centre of the universe ? The sites you have posted do not cover this............And how can space between galaxies expand ?There is no center to the universe. If there was we would easily detect it and the whole universe would be rotating about that center. The location of the universe's origin is not in this universe.

To draw an analogy:

Imagine a one dimensional Lineworld universe that is shaped like the circumference of a circle. A Big Bang cosmologist in it has measured that the circumference is getting larger with time. He cannot see the compass that drew the circle and that the radii of the circle are made like shock absorbers that are expanding and causing the circumference to expand. He can only measure forward and backward because up and down and side to side does not exist in Lineworld.

But he has to stick with his measurements. They tell him the universe was smaller in the past and that he can only extrapolate back to a single point and call that a singularity. He cannot see the two dimensions of expanding radii spokes that make up the engine of inflation. Those spokes do not lie on the circumference of the circle and are not in Lineworld at all. Lineworld is wrapped around a larger number of dimensions that its beings cannot detect and Lineworld is wrapped around a singularity that is enormous. Lineworld has no center, it only has forward and backward to its existence.

Likewise with our universe. It is possibly wrapped around a higher number of dimensions that are beyond our comprehension with a singularity that is possibly enormous.