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NASA aims to destroy an Empire State Building-sized asteroid (interestingengineering.com)
submitted 2 years ago by Bobo@lemm.ee to c/science@beehaw.org
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Astronomers have been closely monitoring Bennu, which swings close to Earth every six years. However, the real cause for concern arises from the possibility that on September 24, 2182, Bennu could collide with our planet with a force equivalent to 22 atomic bombs. While the odds of such a catastrophic strike are estimated at 1 in 2,700, NASA is not taking any chances.

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[-] theKalash@feddit.ch 39 points 2 years ago

a force equivalent to 22 atomic bombs.

What kind of murica unit is this?

Also there is a pretty big difference between 22 Davy Crocketts and 22 Tsar Bombas.

[-] luciole@beehaw.org 26 points 2 years ago

Wikipedia (citing NASA) states that the force would be 1,200 megatons in TNT equivalent. Tsar Bombas being 54 megatons, Bennu is 22 Tsar Bombas.

[-] agressivelyPassive@feddit.de 22 points 2 years ago

A Davy Crockett is 254 square inch per fahrenheit-crocodiles, so we're obviously talking about an explosion of roughly 76 cubic pound per school shooting.

[-] theKalash@feddit.ch 8 points 2 years ago

Are we talking saltwater- or marsh crocodiles here?

[-] agressivelyPassive@feddit.de 9 points 2 years ago

Freshwater, obviously. God, did you learn nothing from paying 200k for education?

[-] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 1 points 2 years ago

I thought the Davy Crockett nuclear bazooka was stronger than that.

[-] WingedThing@lemmy.one 11 points 2 years ago

Comparing high-energy events, especially ones that cause destruction, to weapons that have been used is very common, not just in "murica"

The lack of specificity as to what kind of atomic bomb is silly, though.

[-] theKalash@feddit.ch 8 points 2 years ago

Yeah, usually you put it into TNT equivalants. Which in itself isn't useful, but it allows me to look up which order of magnituted of atomic bomb we're talking about. And somebody actually put in the work and it is 22 of the biggest bombs ever. (which ironically are Sovjet, not Murican).

Anyway, It was really just a cheap "Americans don't use metric joke", don't overthink it.

[-] ink@r.nf 1 points 2 years ago

Comparing high-energy events, especially ones that cause destruction, to weapons that have been used is very common, not just in “murica”

can you provide a few examples?

[-] shrugal@lemm.ee 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Watch one kurzgesagt video about how to destroy the planet.

[-] Kaldo@kbin.social 9 points 2 years ago

I really need to hear how many football fields can fit on this asteroid before being able to judge its size

[-] theKalash@feddit.ch 7 points 2 years ago

Empire State Buldings not doing it for you?

[-] JeremyMallin@autistics.life 3 points 2 years ago

@Kaldo @Bobo @theKalash I would also need to know if those are American football fields or rest of the world ones (ie, soccer). 😉

[-] unix_joe@lemmy.sdf.org 8 points 2 years ago

The same kind that lists the Empire State Building in the headline, like it's the 1930s and that's still impressive.

[-] Sabata11792@kbin.social 4 points 2 years ago

Simple, ~88,400 hamburgers is too big of a number to reasonably visualize.

this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2023
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