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On Oct 312015 massive asteroid TB145 nicknamed "Spooky" passed near the Earth vicinity. The measured diameter of the asteroid is 600 meters and its speed relative to the Sun: 24.0 km/s. (NOTE you are not given the parameters of collision, so they become important part of the "worst case -best case scenario.") Treat the asteroid as spherical object with the density of between 1 g/cm

3
to 6 g/cm
3
. Treat an Earth orbit around the Sun as a perfect circle of radius =150×10
6
km. Take one year to be 365.24 days. Find the Minimum energy released in the completely inelastic collision of this object with Earth. State your answers to the nearest mega-ton of TNT. ( 1 megaton of TNT= 4.184×10

15 J) Your Answer:

2 Answers

4 votes

Final answer:

To find the minimum energy released in the completely inelastic collision of the asteroid with Earth, we can calculate the kinetic energy of the asteroid just before it hits Earth by using the formula for kinetic energy.

Step-by-step explanation:

To find the minimum energy released in the completely inelastic collision of the asteroid with Earth, we need to calculate the kinetic energy of the asteroid just before it hits Earth.

The formula for kinetic energy is:

Kinetic Energy = 1/2 * mass * velocity^2

Given that the asteroid has a mass of 2.0 × 10^13 kg and a speed of 2.0

km/s before it hits Earth, we can calculate its kinetic energy:

Kinetic Energy = 1/2 * (2.0 × 10^13 kg) * (2.0 km/s)^2

After calculating the value, we can compare it to the output of the largest fission bomb, 2100 TJ, to determine the impact it would have on Earth.

User Tigre
by
9.0k points
5 votes

Final answer:

To find the minimum energy released in the completely inelastic collision of an asteroid with Earth, we can use the concept of kinetic energy.

Step-by-step explanation:

To find the minimum energy released in the completely inelastic collision of an asteroid with Earth, we can use the concept of kinetic energy. The kinetic energy of the asteroid before the collision can be calculated using the formula:

E_k = (1/2)m_av^2,

where E_k is the kinetic energy, m_a is the mass of the asteroid, and v is its velocity. The kinetic energy before the collision can then be compared to the kinetic energy after the collision to find the energy released. Since the collision is completely inelastic, the two objects will stick together after the collision. The kinetic energy after the collision can be calculated using the same formula with the combined mass of the asteroid and Earth. The energy released is then the difference between the two kinetic energies.

User JuJoDi
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8.4k points