The topic of destruction of life on earth by man is constantly discussed in journalism. Either as a result of global warming, or as a result of pollution of the planet with technical waste, or as a result of atomic war. Let's see if this is possible?
To assess this possibility, it is necessary to consider the history of planet Earth on a geological and paleontological scale.
Let's get started: Throughout history, the earth has known several global catastrophes that led to great extinctions. About six. (Now the sixth one is coming. The culprit is a man).
The earliest known occurred about 600 million years ago. At the boundary of the Precambrian and Cambrian periods. Then the planet simply became covered with ice. From pole to pole. Scientists are still arguing whether glaciation really covered the entire planet? There is no consensus. But still, modern data on the location of the continents in that period and comparison of traces of glaciation on them leads to the conclusion that it was the entire planet that froze. From pole to pole. The oceans were covered with a kilometer layer of ice. Modern science sees the reason for this in the emergence and rapid development of single-celled green algae. They began to multiply abundantly, absorbing carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases. At that time, phytocides had not yet arisen. That's why no one ate algae. The oceans were covered with meter-thick layers of organic matter, which were bacterial and algae mats. Something like modern mud. There is an assumption that it is precisely to the geological processing of this organic matter that we owe the majority of modern oil and gas deposits. So: by absorbing and converting all the greenhouse gases into oxygen, these algae led to the cooling of the entire planet to a temperature below the freezing level of water. Especially considering that the Sun in those days shone three percent less intensely than now. First the land froze, and then the ocean. Until the oceans were covered with ice, temperature contrasts between the ocean and land remained, reaching hundreds of degrees. Which caused monstrous storms in the coastal zone. Hundred-meter waves rolled onto the land. Remnants of life survived only in the depths of the oceans and in areas of volcanic and thermal activity on the surface of the earth. And so it went on for about 10 million years. During this time, the volcanoes gradually again “breathed” carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. And the planet thawed. First, the land thawed, followed by the ocean. And life resumed. During the glaciation, the first phytocides appeared in the biosphere, eating algae. Therefore, they could no longer reproduce indefinitely. Life has moved to a more balanced development.
The next great extinction occurred at the turn of the Permian and Triassic periods. Approximately 260 million years ago. Then the reason was different. At that time, the continents once again huddled together into one supercontinent, Pangea. And the continental tectonic plates began to creep one upon the other and, what is much worse, creep one under the other. As you know, the continental crust is much lighter than the mantle. That is why continents float on it. Crawling under another continental plate, the continental plate plunges to a depth of approximately 2500 kilometers. To an area of higher temperature. There, it first softens and layers like thick molasses in folds on itself, recessing the lower layers even further into the depths. (This picture is visible during seismic scanning using explosions of the zone of subduction of the Indian plate under the Asian one). Where they melt to a liquid state and, in the form of a huge drop, slowly, at a speed of several centimeters per year, float up. Having risen to a certain depth, this giant drop first swells the earth's crust with a huge bubble, several kilometers high, and then tears and burns it, spilling lava over huge areas. It was precisely such spills dating back to that era that were recorded in western Siberia and Brazil. In Siberia this is called Siberian ladders. Then lava filled an area the size of the United States with a thickness of 6 kilometers. Cracks in the earth's crust in Siberia reached several thousand kilometers in length and several hundred kilometers in width. These were no longer volcanoes. And giant seas of lava spewing into the atmosphere millions cubokilometer in poisonous gases and ash. And warming the Earth's atmosphere by an average of ten degrees. Billions of tons of emitted sulfur oxidize and react with water to form sulfuric acid. Billions of tons of acid rain down onto the earth, burning vegetation. Oxygen reacts with volcanic gases and its content in the atmosphere drops from about 30% in the Carboniferous period to less than 10%. And in the seas, the oxygen content dropped to almost zero. Due to the fact that the water heated to about 35 degrees. And as you know, with increasing temperature, the solubility of gases in water decreases. It was the greatest extinction of living things on the planet in all time. About 97% of creatures died out in the ocean, and more than 75% of creatures on land. And so it went on for about 100 million years.
During this time, radical changes occurred in the structure of land creatures. Some flying creature, due to a sharp reduction in the amount of oxygen, could no longer fly. But her lungs were enough to quickly run along the ground. Afterwards, bipedal dinosaurs evolved from it, and subsequently birds. That is why all dinosaurs, even such a heavy and flightless one as the notorious Tyrannosaurus Rex, had hollow bones characteristic of flying creatures and additional air sacs for ventilation of the lungs in the sinuses of the bones.
And land creatures lost ribs on their stomachs. And they acquired a muscular diaphragm, which allowed them to breathe “into the stomach,” which significantly increased the volume of their lungs and allowed them to adapt to the lack of oxygen.
By the way: This is precisely the geological process that is brewing in our time with the collision of the Indian tectonic plate with the Asian one. Seismic sounding has shown the presence of folds of softened continental crust under the Tibetan Plateau. And if you look at the globe (the map is distorted), you will see a huge oval bubble, bordered at the edges by mountains. In the south - the Himalayas, in the north - the Altai, Sayan and other mountain ranges. And from the west the Hindu Kush. A giant hot drop is already forming under Tibet, which floats up in the viscous mantle, swelling Tibet to a height already four kilometers. The Himalayas were formed as the scraping and hummocking of plates during the collision and creep of the Indian plate under the Asian one. The emergence of other mountain ranges around the highlands is influenced by the fact that the crust swells and thins in the center while expanding and sliding towards the edges. Crushing the earth's crust around itself with the folds of mountain ranges. In a few million years, the crust in this place will inevitably be broken and another global catastrophe will occur. This process is slow even by geological standards, but it is unpreventable.
Illustration: The swelling bubble of Tibet on the earth's crust.
It should be added that the floating of the oceanic crust under the continental plate does not lead to a global catastrophe. Because the oceanic crust is heavier and thinner. Therefore, having melted, it is not able to float up and burn through the continental plate. And it only generates a chain of volcanoes at the junction of plates. Through which lighter fractions are poured onto the surface, which were scraped off and dragged into the high-temperature zone by the oceanic plate from the edges of the continental one.
There were also several extinctions when Pangea began to split and the split formed a chain of volcanoes that released toxic gases into the atmosphere. Not like Siberian gangways, but still...
This is exactly how the extinction occurred at the end of the Jurassic period, when a crack formed between the continents, which later became the Atlantic Ocean. The crack smoked like volcanoes, destroying life until it was filled with the waters of a new ocean.
Everyone knows about the next great extinction at the end of the Cretaceous. It is associated with the fall of an asteroid to the earth 60 million years ago. That's when most dinosaurs went extinct. And the survivors gradually evolved into birds.
But there are interesting nuances here too. Judging by the layers of cosmic sediment containing the element iridium - a cosmic metal that is practically not found in the earth's crust - such catastrophes have been repeated throughout the history of the Earth with an interval of 23-25 million years. This one was simply the strongest of all. Some scientists associate this periodicity of catastrophes with the movement of the Sun relative to the disk of the Milky Way galaxy. The Sun rotates along with the disk of the galaxy and at the same time constantly falls, along with all the other stars, towards its center into a black hole. I wrote about this in the article: I. And in addition, under the influence of gravity of the galactic disk, it oscillates perpendicular to the plane of the galactic disk with a half-period of 23-25 million years. Like on a spring, the role of which is played by the gravity of matter in the disk of the galaxy. Either deviating from the disk, then flying through it and going to the opposite side of the galactic disk. According to modern astrophysical theories, there is a lot of dust and rock debris in the plane of the disk. Remnants of once-exploded stars. From which new stars and planets are formed. Moreover, this dust contains a lot of radioactive materials.
The passage of the Sun with its entire planetary system through the plane of the galactic disk takes approximately 500 thousand years. Imagine: radioactive fallout falls on the ground and is periodically bombarded with large debris. And this continues not for 5, not 50, or even 500 years, but 500,000 years! (What kind of world nuclear war is there in comparison with such an impact? So, a small complication!) During this period, life on earth changes greatly. These changes are enhanced not only by the extinction of species, but also by the increased mutation of survivors as a result of prolonged exposure to radiation. The last such extinction event occurred approximately 10 million years ago. And it was relatively small this time. So we expect the next similar extinction from this cause in millions in 12 years. Not earlier.
As we see, throughout the history of planet Earth, life has been broken and twisted in ways that humanity is not capable of and will never be capable of. And she was not destroyed. But on the contrary: it was precisely these periodic extinctions and revivals that made it the way we observe it.
Based on the above, the conclusion follows: humanity is not capable of destroying biological life on earth. Biological life is quite tenacious.
I mean destruction all life on earth. There is no doubt that a person can destroy civilization in its modern form, and even more so, break the modern political system.
We've all seen movies about the end of the world - events in which the Earth is in danger of being completely destroyed, whether it's the work of some "bad" guy or a huge meteorite. The media constantly exaggerates the same topic, terrifying us with nuclear wars, uncontrolled deforestation of tropical forests and total air pollution. In fact, the destruction of our planet is a much more labor-intensive process than you might think.
After all, the Earth is already more than 4.5 billion years old, and its weight is 5.9736 * 1024 kg, and it has already withstood so many shocks that it is impossible to count. And at the same time it continues to revolve around the Sun, as if nothing had happened. And yet, are there ways to “liquidate” the Earth? Yes, there are a dozen such methods, and now we will tell you all about them.
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Simultaneous disappearance of atoms
You don't even need to do anything to do this. Just one day, all 200,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms that make up what we call the Earth will spontaneously cease to exist at the same moment. The odds of such an outcome are actually slightly better than a googolplex to one. And the technology that would allow a person to do this is simply unimaginable from the point of view of modern science.
Absorption by strangelets
For this extravagant method of destroying our green ball, you will need to capture the relativistic heavy ion collider from Brookhaven Laboratory in New York and use it to create an “army” of stable strangelets. The second point of this diabolical plan is to maintain the stability of the strangelets until they turn the planet into a mess of strange matter. We will have to approach this problem creatively, since no one has even discovered these particles yet.
Several years ago, a number of media outlets actually wrote that this is exactly what insidious scientists are doing at Brookhaven Laboratory, but the bottom line is that the chances of ever obtaining a stable strangelet are approaching zero.
Absorption by a microscopic black hole
By the way, black holes are not immortal; they evaporate under the influence of Hawking radiation. And if it takes an eternity for this to happen for medium-sized black holes, then for small ones this can happen almost instantly, since the time spent on evaporation depends on the mass. Therefore, our black hole should weigh about the same as Mount Everest. Creating it will be difficult because it will require an appropriate amount of neutronium.
If everything worked out and a microscopic black hole is created, all that remains is to place it on the surface of the Earth and sit down and enjoy the show. The density of a black hole is so great that it passes through matter like a stone through a piece of paper. The black hole will make its way through the core of the planet to its other side, simultaneously making pendulum-like movements until it absorbs enough matter. Instead of the Earth, a tiny piece of stone, covered in through holes, will rotate around the Sun, as if nothing had happened.
Big bang resulting from the reaction of matter and antimatter
You'll need 2,500 billion tons of antimatter, the most explosive substance in the entire universe. It can be obtained in small quantities using a particle accelerator, but it will take a very long time to gain such a mass. It is much simpler, of course, to rotate a similar amount of matter through the fourth dimension, thus turning it into antimatter. At the exit you will receive a bomb so powerful that the Earth will simply be torn to pieces, and a new asteroid belt will begin to revolve around the Sun.
This will be possible by the year 2500 if we start producing antimatter right now.
Denotation of vacuum energy
What we call vacuum, from the point of view of modern science, cannot be called that, since particles and antiparticles constantly arise and mutually destroy in it, releasing energy. Based on this position, we can conclude that any light bulb contains such an amount of vacuum energy to bring the world's oceans to a boil. All that remains is to figure out how to extract and use the vacuum energy from the light bulb and start the reaction. The released energy will be enough to destroy the Earth, and possibly the entire solar system. In this case, a rapidly expanding gas cloud will appear in place of the Earth.
Being sucked into a huge black hole
Everything is quite simple here: you need to place the Earth and the black hole closer to each other. You can either push our planet towards the black hole using super-powerful rocket engines, or the hole towards the Earth. Of course, it would be most effective to do both. By the way, the closest black hole to our planet is located at a distance of only 1,600 light years in the constellation Sagittarius. According to preliminary estimates, the technologies that will allow this to happen will appear no earlier than the year 3000, plus the entire journey will take about 800 years, so you will have to wait. But, despite the difficulties with implementation, this is quite possible.
Thorough Systematic Deconstruction
You will need a powerful electromagnetic catapult (or better yet, several). Next, we take a large piece of the planet and, using a catapult, launch it beyond the Earth’s orbit. And behind it are the remaining 6 sextillion tons. In principle, given that humanity has already launched a bunch of useful and not so useful things into space, you can start throwing out substances right now and until a certain moment no one will even suspect anything. Ultimately, the Earth will turn into a pile of small fragments, some of which will burn up in the Sun, and the rest will scatter throughout the solar system.
Collision with a large space object
In theory, everything is simple: find a huge asteroid or planet, accelerate it to breakneck speed and point it at Earth. If the impact is strong and precise enough, the Earth and the object that struck it will break apart into pieces that overcome their mutual attraction, and therefore they will never be able to reassemble into a planet. The ideal object for a deadly experiment would be Venus, the closest planet to Earth, which weighs 81% of the Earth's mass.
Absorption by a von Neumann machine
It is necessary to create a von Neumann machine - a mechanism capable of recreating copies of itself from minerals, preferably exclusively from iron, magnesium, silicon and aluminum. Next, we lower the car under the earth’s crust and wait until the machines, the growth of which will grow exponentially, swallow the planet. This idea, although absolutely crazy, is quite feasible, because potentially such a machine will be created by 2050, and maybe earlier.
Throw into the Sun
You will need the same rocket engines as in the case of a giant black hole. You don’t even have to aim accurately - it’s enough for the Earth to move close enough to the Sun, and then tidal forces will tear it apart. Moreover, it may turn out that this does not require special technologies: a random object emerging from space can push the Earth in the right direction. Then the planet will turn into something like a scoop of ice cream melting in the hot sun. But if we ignore random factors, humanity will come to the necessary technologies no earlier than 2250.
Once upon a time, people did not believe that you could walk on the moon. They once considered it impossible to create a flying car, although today airplanes are the most routine thing. But how soon will humanity be able to destroy the Earth entirely? Destroying such a large space object as a planet is not easy, but there are at least 10 ways to achieve this goal:
1. Simultaneous cessation of the existence of atoms
Materials needed: Something to pass the time.
Method: This is the easiest, although least feasible way. You don’t need to do anything special, just relax and do what you love until all 200,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms of the Earth cease to exist. And that's it - the Earth is destroyed! But the chances of this are less than getting into Googleplex - Google headquarters.
Probability of Plan Fulfillment: 0/10
As a result, in place of the Earth: Empty space
2. Destruction with straplets
Required materials: One stable strap is enough. True, a strapel is a hypothetical object consisting of strange matter - relatively speaking, free quarks (up, down and strange), not combined into hadrons.
Method: It is possible to obtain a stable strapel only by gaining access to the American Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. All that remains is to use it to create a strange shot and keep it in a stable state until it destroys the Earth. And that's it, it's all in the bag! Although, if you think about it, the actual probability of creating a stable strap for such a long period is also zero.
Probability of Plan Fulfillment: 1/10
As a result, in place of the Earth: One big question mark.
3. Absorption by a microscopic “black hole”
Required materials: A device capable of creating a very compact, almost microscopic “black hole” the size of Everest.
Method: Place the black hole on the ground and wait. The “black hole” will fall into the center of the planet and then swallow it all, slowly but surely.
Probability of Plan Fulfillment: 2/10
As a result, in the place of the Earth: an extremely microscopic point of almost zero mass, which will continue to revolve around the Sun, as it happens.
4. Annihilation by antimatter
Materials needed: a mere trifle - 2,500,000,000,000,000,000,000 tons of antimatter, the most versatile explosive that has ever existed in the world. The good old way to get rid of the Earth. And quite light, although creating such an amount of antimatter is, of course, not easy, and you will have to work hard to achieve the result.
Method: Deliver the required amount of antimatter from space to Earth and watch as the planet is torn into a thousand small pieces.
As a result, in the place of the Earth: The second asteroid belt in the Solar System, only this time closer to the star.
5. Vacuum explosion energy
Materials needed: a simple light bulb. Yes, tiny light bulbs can destroy the Earth!
Method: Some people may not be aware, but vacuum energy can potentially cause truly catastrophic consequences. In a vacuum, a 60-watt light bulb can boil all the water on Earth. Of course, destroying the planet itself, which is much harder, would require significantly more energy. But nothing is impossible. Build a power plant that can properly harness vacuum energy and perform all the necessary processes - and then let it run out of control. So you can blow up not only the Earth, but also the Sun itself!
Probability of Plan Fulfillment: 5/10
As a result, in place of the Earth: a rapidly expanding cloud consisting of particles of different calibers.
6. Absorption by a giant “black hole”
Materials needed: a large “black hole” (the closest is 1600 light-years away from our planet) and extremely powerful engines that are capable of transporting the Earth to it.
Method: This is one of the easiest ways to destroy a planet, provided that the objects are already nearby. The plan is extremely simple - however, first you need to bring these two objects together. The journey to the nearest black hole will take only 800 years, provided that the black hole and the Earth are moving towards each other. Apply the sixth method only if you were unable to create a microscopic “black hole”, as described in method No. 3.
As a result, in place of the Earth: a giant piece of a “black hole”.
7. Destruction in parts.
Materials needed: One extremely cool excavator or several smaller machines. Just keep in mind that we will need a power of at least 2 × 10 to the 32nd power of kilojoules.
Method: Here is, finally, the opportunity to immediately begin the destruction of the Earth! All that is required is to take a huge excavator, separate large pieces of the planet and throw them into space. It’s a bit complicated, of course, considering that the force of the excavator must be sufficient to give the pieces a speed of 11 kilometers per second, taking into account calm atmospheric conditions. Well, and take into account that the mass of the Earth is billions of tons, which are influenced by gravity, that it will take about 189,000,000 years to dig. Remember that patience is one of the cardinal virtues.
Probability of Plan Fulfillment: 6/10
The result, in place of the Earth: Billions of tiny pieces of matter floating in space.
8. Impulse impact
Required materials: Something large with a huge mass (Mars would be ideal) and a device that can accelerate it.
Method: Almost anything can be destroyed by the force of momentum generated by the impact of speed on mass. That is, all that needs to be done is to take Mars, accelerate it at least 40-50 kilometers per second and throw it into the Earth. Well, or you can accelerate something smaller, a small asteroid; 10,000,000,000,000-ton crumbs will be enough. And throw it at the Earth at a speed equal to 90% of the speed of light. Such an impulse would be enough to disperse the Earth.
Probability of Plan Fulfillment: 7/10
As a result, in place of the Earth: And again, billions of rock fragments will scatter throughout the solar system.
9. Fonneyman's destruction
Materials Required: One von Neumann self-replicating machine. Von Neumann machines are devices that copy themselves, provided they have the necessary raw materials.
Method: Create a machine that is composed primarily of iron, magnesium and silicon, as the most readily available minerals on Earth. Place it on the ground and watch the machine reproduce itself, destroying the planet.
Probability of Plan Fulfillment: 8/10
As a result, in the place of the Earth: a bunch of self-replicating von Neumann machines on an iron core revolving around the Sun.
10. Throw into the Sun
Required materials: a machine that can move the Earth.
Method: Point the Earth towards the Sun, and that's it. Of course, now this is not very realistic, given the current level of development of human technology. But perhaps the day will come when doing such a thing will be a piece of cake. A large asteroid hitting the Earth from the right direction and at the right speed could do the job just as well.
Probability of Plan Fulfillment: 9/10
As a result, in the place of the Earth: a small ball of boiling iron, plunging into the hot depths of the Sun.
The modern era has brought us one of the most terrible inventions in the entire history of mankind - the atomic bomb. This harnesses the power of physics, releasing enormous amounts of energy from a relatively small amount of mass. This small mass of charge creates an incomprehensible fire, a blast wave, and radiation. All this poses a threat to humanity in the form of the death of millions and diseases associated with exposure to radiation.
So it has long been a known fact that in the event of massive explosions of nuclear bombs on the planet, humanity could die. But can our planet die from a massive nuclear explosion? In fact, there are no military resources on the planet that could destroy the entire Earth, which rotates as a sphere around the Sun. Let us remind you that the diameter of our planet is 12,742 kilometers. Such a huge sphere cannot be destroyed by the entire nuclear arsenal that is on our planet. Here are technical explanations from famous physicists.
Recently, physicists (astrophysicists) were asked what the limits of destruction are for nuclear weapons available on our planet. Scientists were also asked how many nuclear bombs would be needed to dislodge the Earth from its orbit around the Sun. Among other things, physicists were asked a more important question: what consequences await the Earth if all the nuclear weapons on our planet are detonated?
Konstantin Yurievich Batygin
Astronomer, astrophysicist
- - In principle, to displace the Earth from its orbit, you just need to stop its movement. Then it will begin to fall in space.
- The Earth's kinetic energy (the energy of the Earth orbiting the Sun) is equal to half the Earth's mass times its orbital speed, which is about 10 40 ergs. (Erg / Ergs - unit of energy)
- During the test (Starfish Prime), one of the most powerful American nuclear bombs released an energy of 10 22 erg (1 megaton of TNT).
- Taking these data, we can calculate how many nuclear bombs need to be detonated simultaneously to stop the rotation of our planet. You will find that you will need 600,000,000,000,000,000 nuclear warheads with a yield comparable to the bomb that was detonated by the Americans in a test called Starfish Prime.
Luke Dones
Senior Researcher, South-West Research Institute USA
- - Kinetic energy of the Earth in its orbit:
- E = ½ mv 2 = ½ (6 x 10 24 kg) * (30,000 m/s) 2 or approximately 3 10 33 J, where m- mass of the Earth, v- its speed around the Sun.
- The energy of a 1-megaton bomb is E bomb = 4 10 15 J.
- To knock the Earth out of orbit and send it flying towards the Sun, for example, you would need to change the Earth's energy in orbit by a significant portion of its current energy, so you would need approximately E/E bomb = (3 x 10 33) / (4 x 10 15 ) nuclear bombs, or approximately 10 18 megatons of nuclear charges, i.e. a billion billion large atomic bombs.
Janine Krippner
Volcanologist
- - If the largest and most explosive volcanic eruptions on Earth did not send our planet towards the Sun, then it is rather doubtful that humanity will ever have so many atomic bombs capable of, with their energy and a simultaneous explosion, knocking planet Earth out of orbit, sending it directly towards To the sun.
- For example, on our planet there were volcanic eruptions that released enormous energy, comparable to hundreds and even thousands of nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima. Moreover, these volcanic eruptions do not take into account the incredibly enormous energy that volcanoes such as Yellowstone or Taupo occasionally emit.
Alan Robock
Professor Emeritus, Department of Environmental Sciences, Rutgers University, USA
- - I have no experience in calculating the nuclear energy required to change planetary orbits. But despite this, I will immediately say that this is impossible. We do not have enough atomic bombs on our planet that would be capable of sending our Earth to travel across the expanses of the Universe in a new orbit.
However, I have experience and knowledge of how the use of nuclear weapons in war can change the climate of our Earth.
So, if a nuclear war breaks out, then, naturally, the first strikes of atomic bombs will fall on the industrial areas (cities, towns) of the warring countries. As a result of the explosion of atomic bombs, incredible fires will begin. Smoke from the fires will rise into the stratosphere and will change for years.
- As the smoke rises into the stratosphere, it will block the sun's rays from reaching the planet and twilight will fall on Earth. At the same time, the destruction of the ozone layer will begin, which will lead to a large amount of UV rays penetrating the Earth's surface.
How the climate and the amount of incoming ultraviolet radiation will change will depend on the number of nuclear explosions on the planet, their targets and how powerful atomic weapons will be used.
- By the way, it has already been calculated that a war between the United States and Russia will lead to a nuclear winter, killing most of the agriculture on the entire Earth, as a result of which most people on the planet will face hunger. Moreover, this theory was recently confirmed by calculations by scientists in a number of countries.
But even a war between two new small nuclear powers, such as India and Pakistan, could also lead to climate change unprecedented in human history, the threat of which would be widespread famine across the planet.
Dr. Laura Grego
Scientist working on global issues of planetary security
- - If you think about what nuclear weapons are and what they are intended for, you become uneasy. Even one atomic bomb can cause incredible destruction and a huge number of casualties. It's horrible. Especially considering the number of nuclear weapons on our planet today. For example, the United States and Russia currently possess the vast majority of nuclear weapons on the planet. Each of these countries could quickly deploy about 2,000 nuclear weapons for military action. Another 2000 are available for storage.
Every fifth person on the planet lives in one of the 436 cities with a population of more than one million people. Therefore, a significant portion of the world's population could be destroyed using less than half of the nuclear bombs owned by just one country.
- But even a nuclear conflict on a much smaller scale can have devastating consequences. For example, a conflict between India and Pakistan could turn into a nuclear war between them, in which nuclear bombs with the power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima would be used to strike the cities of these countries. As a result of this, about 20 million people will be destroyed in a short time.
And smoke from fires after the explosion of atomic bombs in the cities of these countries will be transferred into the atmosphere of the planet, which is why we will face climate change and acidic conditions for decades.
This will lead to mass famine, leaving a billion or more people at risk of going completely without food.
So, as you can see, just storing nuclear missiles is terrible. Probably, the moment has long come when it is time for nuclear powers to take real steps to reduce nuclear weapons on the planet. After all, storing nuclear warheads is a time bomb.
A lot of information is written and shown that our planet will soon come to an end. But destroying the Earth is not so easy. The planet has already been subjected to asteroid attacks, and will survive a nuclear war. So let's look at some ways to destroy the Earth.
The Earth weighs 5.9736·1024 kg and is already 4.5 billion years old.
1. The earth may simply cease to exist
You don't even need to do anything. Some scientists have suggested that one day all the countless atoms that make up the Earth will suddenly spontaneously and most importantly, simultaneously, cease to exist. In fact, the odds of this happening are about a googolplex to one. And the technology that makes it possible to send so much active matter into oblivion is unlikely to ever be invented.
2. Will be absorbed by strangelets
All you need is a stable strangelet. Take control of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York and use it to create and maintain stable strangelets. Keep them stable until they get out of control and turn the entire planet into a mass of strange quarks. True, keeping strangelets stable is incredibly difficult (if only because no one has yet discovered these particles), but with a creative approach anything is possible.
A number of media outlets talked about this danger some time ago and that this is exactly what is being done now in New York, but in reality the chances that a stable strangelet will ever be formed are almost zero.
But if this happens, then in place of the Earth there will only be a huge ball of “strange” matter.
3. Will be swallowed up by a microscopic black hole
You'll need a microscopic black hole. Please note that black holes are not eternal, they evaporate under the influence of Hawking radiation. For medium-sized black holes, this requires an unimaginable amount of time, but for very small ones this will happen almost instantly: the evaporation time depends on the mass. Therefore, a black hole suitable for destroying a planet should weigh approximately the same as Mount Everest. It is difficult to create one, because a certain amount of neutronium is required, but you can try to make do with a huge number of atomic nuclei compressed together.
Then you need to place a black hole on the surface of the Earth and wait. The density of black holes is so high that they pass through ordinary matter like a rock through air, so our hole will fall through the Earth, making its way through its center to the other side of the planet: the hole will scurry back and forth like a pendulum. Eventually, having absorbed enough matter, it will stop at the center of the Earth and “eat up” the rest.
The likelihood of such a turn of events is very low. But it’s no longer impossible.
And in place of the Earth there will be a tiny object that will begin to revolve around the Sun as if nothing had happened.
4. Explode as a result of the reaction of matter and antimatter
We will need 2,500,000,000,000 antimatter - perhaps the most “explosive” substance in the Universe. It can be produced in small quantities using any large particle accelerator, but it will take a long time to collect the required amount. You can come up with an appropriate mechanism, but it is much easier, of course, to simply “turn over” 2.5 tril. tons of matter through the fourth dimension, turning it into antimatter in one fell swoop. The result will be a huge bomb that will immediately tear the Earth into pieces.
How difficult is it to implement? The gravitational energy of the planetary mass (M) and radius (P) are given by the formula E=(3/5)GM2/R. As a result, the Earth will need approximately 224 * 1010 joules. The sun produces this amount for almost a week.
To release that much energy, all 2.5 trils must be destroyed at once. tons of antimatter - provided that the loss of heat and energy is zero, and this is unlikely to happen, so the amount will have to be increased tenfold. And if you still managed to get so much antimatter, all that remains is to simply launch it towards the Earth. As a result of the release of energy (the familiar law E = mc2), the Earth will shatter into thousands of pieces.
In this place there will be an asteroid belt that will continue to revolve around the Sun.
By the way, if you start producing antimatter right now, then given modern technologies, you can just finish it by the year 2500.
5. Will be destroyed by vacuum energy detonation
Don't be surprised: we will need light bulbs. Modern scientific theories say that what we call a vacuum cannot, in fact, rightfully be called that, because particles and antiparticles are constantly being created and destroyed in colossal quantities in it. This approach also implies that the space contained in any light bulb contains enough vacuum energy to boil any ocean on the planet. Consequently, vacuum energy may be one of the most accessible types of energy. All you have to do is figure out how to extract it from light bulbs and use it in, say, a power plant (which is pretty easy to get into without raising suspicion), trigger the reaction, and let it get out of control. As a result, the released energy will be enough to destroy everything on planet Earth, possibly along with the Sun.
A rapidly expanding cloud of particles of different sizes will appear in place of the Earth.
Of course, there is a possibility of such a turn of events, but it is very small.
6. Sucked into a giant black hole
A black hole, extremely powerful rocket engines, and possibly a large rocky planetary body are needed. The closest black hole to our planet is located 1,600 light years away in the constellation Sagittarius, in orbit V4641.
Everything is simple here - you just need to place the Earth and the black hole closer to each other. There are two ways to do this: either move the Earth in the direction of the hole, or the hole towards the Earth, but it is more effective, of course, to move both at once.
This is very difficult to implement, but definitely possible. In place of the Earth there will be part of the mass of the black hole.
The disadvantage is that it takes a very long time for technology to emerge that allows this to be done. Definitely not earlier than the year 3000, plus travel time - 800 years.
7. Carefully and systematically deconstructed
You will need a powerful electromagnetic catapult (ideally several) and access to approximately 2 * 1032 joules.
Next, you need to take a large piece of the Earth at a time and launch it beyond the Earth's orbit. And so over and over again launch all 6 sextillion tons. An electromagnetic catapult is a kind of huge-sized electromagnetic rail gun proposed several years ago for mining and transporting cargo from the Moon to Earth. The principle is simple - load the material into the catapult and shoot it in the right direction. To destroy the Earth, you need to use a particularly powerful model to give the object a cosmic speed of 11 km/s.
Alternative methods for throwing material into space involve the space shuttle or space elevator. The problem is that they require a titanic amount of energy. It would also be possible to build a Dyson sphere, but technology will probably allow this to be done in about 5,000 years.
In principle, the process of throwing matter out of the planet can begin right now; humanity has already sent a lot of useful and not so useful objects into space, so until a certain moment no one will even notice anything.
Instead of the Earth, in the end there will be many small pieces, some of which will fall on the Sun, and the rest will end up in all corners of the solar system.
Oh yes. The implementation of the project, taking into account the ejection of a billion tons per second from the Earth, will take 189 million years.
8. Will fall to pieces when hit by a blunt object
It would take a colossal heavy stone and something to push it. In principle, Mars is quite suitable.
The point is that there is nothing that cannot be destroyed if you hit it hard enough. Nothing at all. The concept is simple: find a very, very large asteroid or planet, give it mind-blowing speed and smash it into the Earth. The result will be that the Earth, like the object that hit it, will cease to exist - it will simply disintegrate into several large pieces. If the impact was strong and accurate enough, then the energy from it would be enough for new objects to overcome mutual attraction and never gather into a planet again.
The minimum permissible speed for an “impact” object is 11 km/s, so provided that there is no loss of energy, our object should have a mass of approximately 60% of the Earth’s. Mars weighs approximately 11% of the Earth's mass, but Venus, the closest planet to Earth, by the way, already weighs 81% of the Earth's mass. If you accelerate Mars more strongly, then it will also be suitable, but Venus is already an almost ideal candidate for this role. The greater the speed of an object, the less mass it can have. For example, an asteroid weighing 10*104 launched at 90% of the speed of light will be just as effective.
Quite plausible.
Instead of the Earth, there will be pieces of rock approximately the size of the Moon, scattered throughout the solar system.
9. Absorbed by a von Neumann machine
All that is needed is a von Neumann machine - a device that can create a copy of itself from minerals. Build one that will run solely on iron, magnesium, aluminum or silicon - basically, the main elements found in the Earth's mantle or core. The size of the device does not matter - it can reproduce itself at any time. Then you need to lower the machines under the earth's crust and wait until two machines create two more, these create eight more, and so on. As a result, the Earth will be swallowed up by a crowd of von Neumann machines, and they can be sent to the Sun using previously prepared rocket boosters.
This is such a crazy idea that it might even work.
The Earth will turn into a large piece, gradually absorbed by the Sun.
By the way, such a machine could potentially be created in 2050 or even earlier.
10. Thrown into the Sun
Special technologies will be needed to move the Earth. The point is to throw the Earth into the Sun. However, ensuring such a collision is not so easy, even if you do not set yourself the goal of hitting the planet exactly on the “target”. It is enough for the Earth to be close to it, and then tidal forces will tear it apart. The main thing is to prevent the Earth from entering an elliptical orbit.
With our level of technology this is impossible, but someday people will figure out a way. Or an accident could happen: an object would appear out of nowhere and push the Earth in the right direction. And what will remain of our planet is a small ball of evaporating iron, gradually sinking into the Sun.
There is some probability that something similar will happen in 25 years: previously, astronomers have already noticed suitable asteroids in space moving towards Earth. But if we ignore the random factor, then at the current level of technology development, humanity will become capable of this no earlier than the year 2250.