Could a ~150 mile impact basin form from a small object imact?












1














Could a ~150 mile (240 kilometers) crater form from a small object impact?



So the object impacting the site of the crater is a human shape and not able to be destroyed. The location of the impact is in an ocean which is on average 1000 feet (304 meters) deep with the ocean floor made of mostly granite. The atmosphere is also similar to earths. The gravity is half that of earth.










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  • 2




    Wait... The impact location is the ocean, but you want a 150 mile impact basin? At the bottom of the ocean? The impact velocity would probably vaporize most of the ocean (after igniting the atmosphere), killing everything on the planet. Did I understand that correctly?
    – JBH
    3 hours ago






  • 2




    I scratch my head for a science based question involving an indestructible bullet...
    – L.Dutch
    2 hours ago






  • 1




    Yes you understand correctly. But at this point there wouldn't be life at all. The story is a deity of sorts falls into the planet at an extremely high speed and the impact creates the only land on the planet.
    – SlothsAndMe
    2 hours ago
















1














Could a ~150 mile (240 kilometers) crater form from a small object impact?



So the object impacting the site of the crater is a human shape and not able to be destroyed. The location of the impact is in an ocean which is on average 1000 feet (304 meters) deep with the ocean floor made of mostly granite. The atmosphere is also similar to earths. The gravity is half that of earth.










share|improve this question


















  • 2




    Wait... The impact location is the ocean, but you want a 150 mile impact basin? At the bottom of the ocean? The impact velocity would probably vaporize most of the ocean (after igniting the atmosphere), killing everything on the planet. Did I understand that correctly?
    – JBH
    3 hours ago






  • 2




    I scratch my head for a science based question involving an indestructible bullet...
    – L.Dutch
    2 hours ago






  • 1




    Yes you understand correctly. But at this point there wouldn't be life at all. The story is a deity of sorts falls into the planet at an extremely high speed and the impact creates the only land on the planet.
    – SlothsAndMe
    2 hours ago














1












1








1







Could a ~150 mile (240 kilometers) crater form from a small object impact?



So the object impacting the site of the crater is a human shape and not able to be destroyed. The location of the impact is in an ocean which is on average 1000 feet (304 meters) deep with the ocean floor made of mostly granite. The atmosphere is also similar to earths. The gravity is half that of earth.










share|improve this question













Could a ~150 mile (240 kilometers) crater form from a small object impact?



So the object impacting the site of the crater is a human shape and not able to be destroyed. The location of the impact is in an ocean which is on average 1000 feet (304 meters) deep with the ocean floor made of mostly granite. The atmosphere is also similar to earths. The gravity is half that of earth.







science-based asteroids cataclysms






share|improve this question













share|improve this question











share|improve this question




share|improve this question










asked 4 hours ago









SlothsAndMe

515




515








  • 2




    Wait... The impact location is the ocean, but you want a 150 mile impact basin? At the bottom of the ocean? The impact velocity would probably vaporize most of the ocean (after igniting the atmosphere), killing everything on the planet. Did I understand that correctly?
    – JBH
    3 hours ago






  • 2




    I scratch my head for a science based question involving an indestructible bullet...
    – L.Dutch
    2 hours ago






  • 1




    Yes you understand correctly. But at this point there wouldn't be life at all. The story is a deity of sorts falls into the planet at an extremely high speed and the impact creates the only land on the planet.
    – SlothsAndMe
    2 hours ago














  • 2




    Wait... The impact location is the ocean, but you want a 150 mile impact basin? At the bottom of the ocean? The impact velocity would probably vaporize most of the ocean (after igniting the atmosphere), killing everything on the planet. Did I understand that correctly?
    – JBH
    3 hours ago






  • 2




    I scratch my head for a science based question involving an indestructible bullet...
    – L.Dutch
    2 hours ago






  • 1




    Yes you understand correctly. But at this point there wouldn't be life at all. The story is a deity of sorts falls into the planet at an extremely high speed and the impact creates the only land on the planet.
    – SlothsAndMe
    2 hours ago








2




2




Wait... The impact location is the ocean, but you want a 150 mile impact basin? At the bottom of the ocean? The impact velocity would probably vaporize most of the ocean (after igniting the atmosphere), killing everything on the planet. Did I understand that correctly?
– JBH
3 hours ago




Wait... The impact location is the ocean, but you want a 150 mile impact basin? At the bottom of the ocean? The impact velocity would probably vaporize most of the ocean (after igniting the atmosphere), killing everything on the planet. Did I understand that correctly?
– JBH
3 hours ago




2




2




I scratch my head for a science based question involving an indestructible bullet...
– L.Dutch
2 hours ago




I scratch my head for a science based question involving an indestructible bullet...
– L.Dutch
2 hours ago




1




1




Yes you understand correctly. But at this point there wouldn't be life at all. The story is a deity of sorts falls into the planet at an extremely high speed and the impact creates the only land on the planet.
– SlothsAndMe
2 hours ago




Yes you understand correctly. But at this point there wouldn't be life at all. The story is a deity of sorts falls into the planet at an extremely high speed and the impact creates the only land on the planet.
– SlothsAndMe
2 hours ago










2 Answers
2






active

oldest

votes


















2














I used Down2Earth's impact calculator to try and find out what it would take to get what you want.



The only parameter I could get even close to what you want was the target site: the bed of a 300m deep water body, on an Earth-like planet. I used the densest projectile and the smallest available size? a 100m wide piece of iron. The angle with the widest crater is that of a head-on crash.



This is not going to end well



This is what we get:



Told ya



If instead of Iron we used uranium, or even osmium (the densest element), we would get approximately thrice the energy on the impact. The crater would still be one or two orders of magnitude smaller than what you want. But that's with the 100m wide impactor.



As you can see, for even an osmium man-sized projectile to give you the juice you need, it will need to impact at a considerable fraction of the speed of light. It will open a hole in whatever tectonic plate it hits, besides melting most of the crust around the impact, triggering a new Hadean era. If the planet has an atmosphere, it will evaporate into space. Gasified rocks will form a new, venusian atmosphere that may last a billion years. The debris from the impact will form a new Moon; the planet will have its mass reduced due to losing that debris to form the Moon, so the planet will have a smaller gravity after the impact. Also, its orbit will probably change excentricity around the sun.



If the solar system is already depleted of icy bodies (i.e.: comets) going around the orbit of that planet, it will never get enough water to develop life again. Otherwise give it a billion years for the crust to cool off and the atmosphere to renew itself, and maybe some microbial life will appear. Billions of years later, any intelligent life will never be able to tell that the impact happened.






share|improve this answer





















  • maybe try with something denser like neutronium.
    – Jasen
    28 mins ago



















2














The Chicxulub impactor is roughly 6.8-50.3 miles in diameter and in this event it released $5.8 cdot 10^{25} J$ of energy.



To figure out how fast a body would have to travel to impart that energy the equation is $E=(1/2)mv^2$.



Assuming average mans body ~80kg (ASSUMING) we get a velocity of $~1.2 cdot 10^{12} m/s$ which is about 4000 times the speed of light.



To scale that out to 150 mile wide crater would be far beyond anything even worth mentioning. Now if this god being were super massively dense, maybe the math would work out.






share|improve this answer










New contributor




Sonvar is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.














  • 1




    It would be better if you used the relativistic formula for kinetic energy
    – L.Dutch
    45 mins ago






  • 1




    Gotta agree with @L.Dutch. If using the classical formula gives an answer like that then it’s time to move up a gear.
    – Joe Bloggs
    39 mins ago






  • 1




    For example, a quick estimate using this calculator pegs the required speed at 0.9999999999999 times the speed of light. Don’t get me wrong, that’s still obscene, but at least it’s physically possible!
    – Joe Bloggs
    32 mins ago











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2 Answers
2






active

oldest

votes








2 Answers
2






active

oldest

votes









active

oldest

votes






active

oldest

votes









2














I used Down2Earth's impact calculator to try and find out what it would take to get what you want.



The only parameter I could get even close to what you want was the target site: the bed of a 300m deep water body, on an Earth-like planet. I used the densest projectile and the smallest available size? a 100m wide piece of iron. The angle with the widest crater is that of a head-on crash.



This is not going to end well



This is what we get:



Told ya



If instead of Iron we used uranium, or even osmium (the densest element), we would get approximately thrice the energy on the impact. The crater would still be one or two orders of magnitude smaller than what you want. But that's with the 100m wide impactor.



As you can see, for even an osmium man-sized projectile to give you the juice you need, it will need to impact at a considerable fraction of the speed of light. It will open a hole in whatever tectonic plate it hits, besides melting most of the crust around the impact, triggering a new Hadean era. If the planet has an atmosphere, it will evaporate into space. Gasified rocks will form a new, venusian atmosphere that may last a billion years. The debris from the impact will form a new Moon; the planet will have its mass reduced due to losing that debris to form the Moon, so the planet will have a smaller gravity after the impact. Also, its orbit will probably change excentricity around the sun.



If the solar system is already depleted of icy bodies (i.e.: comets) going around the orbit of that planet, it will never get enough water to develop life again. Otherwise give it a billion years for the crust to cool off and the atmosphere to renew itself, and maybe some microbial life will appear. Billions of years later, any intelligent life will never be able to tell that the impact happened.






share|improve this answer





















  • maybe try with something denser like neutronium.
    – Jasen
    28 mins ago
















2














I used Down2Earth's impact calculator to try and find out what it would take to get what you want.



The only parameter I could get even close to what you want was the target site: the bed of a 300m deep water body, on an Earth-like planet. I used the densest projectile and the smallest available size? a 100m wide piece of iron. The angle with the widest crater is that of a head-on crash.



This is not going to end well



This is what we get:



Told ya



If instead of Iron we used uranium, or even osmium (the densest element), we would get approximately thrice the energy on the impact. The crater would still be one or two orders of magnitude smaller than what you want. But that's with the 100m wide impactor.



As you can see, for even an osmium man-sized projectile to give you the juice you need, it will need to impact at a considerable fraction of the speed of light. It will open a hole in whatever tectonic plate it hits, besides melting most of the crust around the impact, triggering a new Hadean era. If the planet has an atmosphere, it will evaporate into space. Gasified rocks will form a new, venusian atmosphere that may last a billion years. The debris from the impact will form a new Moon; the planet will have its mass reduced due to losing that debris to form the Moon, so the planet will have a smaller gravity after the impact. Also, its orbit will probably change excentricity around the sun.



If the solar system is already depleted of icy bodies (i.e.: comets) going around the orbit of that planet, it will never get enough water to develop life again. Otherwise give it a billion years for the crust to cool off and the atmosphere to renew itself, and maybe some microbial life will appear. Billions of years later, any intelligent life will never be able to tell that the impact happened.






share|improve this answer





















  • maybe try with something denser like neutronium.
    – Jasen
    28 mins ago














2












2








2






I used Down2Earth's impact calculator to try and find out what it would take to get what you want.



The only parameter I could get even close to what you want was the target site: the bed of a 300m deep water body, on an Earth-like planet. I used the densest projectile and the smallest available size? a 100m wide piece of iron. The angle with the widest crater is that of a head-on crash.



This is not going to end well



This is what we get:



Told ya



If instead of Iron we used uranium, or even osmium (the densest element), we would get approximately thrice the energy on the impact. The crater would still be one or two orders of magnitude smaller than what you want. But that's with the 100m wide impactor.



As you can see, for even an osmium man-sized projectile to give you the juice you need, it will need to impact at a considerable fraction of the speed of light. It will open a hole in whatever tectonic plate it hits, besides melting most of the crust around the impact, triggering a new Hadean era. If the planet has an atmosphere, it will evaporate into space. Gasified rocks will form a new, venusian atmosphere that may last a billion years. The debris from the impact will form a new Moon; the planet will have its mass reduced due to losing that debris to form the Moon, so the planet will have a smaller gravity after the impact. Also, its orbit will probably change excentricity around the sun.



If the solar system is already depleted of icy bodies (i.e.: comets) going around the orbit of that planet, it will never get enough water to develop life again. Otherwise give it a billion years for the crust to cool off and the atmosphere to renew itself, and maybe some microbial life will appear. Billions of years later, any intelligent life will never be able to tell that the impact happened.






share|improve this answer












I used Down2Earth's impact calculator to try and find out what it would take to get what you want.



The only parameter I could get even close to what you want was the target site: the bed of a 300m deep water body, on an Earth-like planet. I used the densest projectile and the smallest available size? a 100m wide piece of iron. The angle with the widest crater is that of a head-on crash.



This is not going to end well



This is what we get:



Told ya



If instead of Iron we used uranium, or even osmium (the densest element), we would get approximately thrice the energy on the impact. The crater would still be one or two orders of magnitude smaller than what you want. But that's with the 100m wide impactor.



As you can see, for even an osmium man-sized projectile to give you the juice you need, it will need to impact at a considerable fraction of the speed of light. It will open a hole in whatever tectonic plate it hits, besides melting most of the crust around the impact, triggering a new Hadean era. If the planet has an atmosphere, it will evaporate into space. Gasified rocks will form a new, venusian atmosphere that may last a billion years. The debris from the impact will form a new Moon; the planet will have its mass reduced due to losing that debris to form the Moon, so the planet will have a smaller gravity after the impact. Also, its orbit will probably change excentricity around the sun.



If the solar system is already depleted of icy bodies (i.e.: comets) going around the orbit of that planet, it will never get enough water to develop life again. Otherwise give it a billion years for the crust to cool off and the atmosphere to renew itself, and maybe some microbial life will appear. Billions of years later, any intelligent life will never be able to tell that the impact happened.







share|improve this answer












share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer










answered 2 hours ago









Renan

43.7k1199223




43.7k1199223












  • maybe try with something denser like neutronium.
    – Jasen
    28 mins ago


















  • maybe try with something denser like neutronium.
    – Jasen
    28 mins ago
















maybe try with something denser like neutronium.
– Jasen
28 mins ago




maybe try with something denser like neutronium.
– Jasen
28 mins ago











2














The Chicxulub impactor is roughly 6.8-50.3 miles in diameter and in this event it released $5.8 cdot 10^{25} J$ of energy.



To figure out how fast a body would have to travel to impart that energy the equation is $E=(1/2)mv^2$.



Assuming average mans body ~80kg (ASSUMING) we get a velocity of $~1.2 cdot 10^{12} m/s$ which is about 4000 times the speed of light.



To scale that out to 150 mile wide crater would be far beyond anything even worth mentioning. Now if this god being were super massively dense, maybe the math would work out.






share|improve this answer










New contributor




Sonvar is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.














  • 1




    It would be better if you used the relativistic formula for kinetic energy
    – L.Dutch
    45 mins ago






  • 1




    Gotta agree with @L.Dutch. If using the classical formula gives an answer like that then it’s time to move up a gear.
    – Joe Bloggs
    39 mins ago






  • 1




    For example, a quick estimate using this calculator pegs the required speed at 0.9999999999999 times the speed of light. Don’t get me wrong, that’s still obscene, but at least it’s physically possible!
    – Joe Bloggs
    32 mins ago
















2














The Chicxulub impactor is roughly 6.8-50.3 miles in diameter and in this event it released $5.8 cdot 10^{25} J$ of energy.



To figure out how fast a body would have to travel to impart that energy the equation is $E=(1/2)mv^2$.



Assuming average mans body ~80kg (ASSUMING) we get a velocity of $~1.2 cdot 10^{12} m/s$ which is about 4000 times the speed of light.



To scale that out to 150 mile wide crater would be far beyond anything even worth mentioning. Now if this god being were super massively dense, maybe the math would work out.






share|improve this answer










New contributor




Sonvar is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.














  • 1




    It would be better if you used the relativistic formula for kinetic energy
    – L.Dutch
    45 mins ago






  • 1




    Gotta agree with @L.Dutch. If using the classical formula gives an answer like that then it’s time to move up a gear.
    – Joe Bloggs
    39 mins ago






  • 1




    For example, a quick estimate using this calculator pegs the required speed at 0.9999999999999 times the speed of light. Don’t get me wrong, that’s still obscene, but at least it’s physically possible!
    – Joe Bloggs
    32 mins ago














2












2








2






The Chicxulub impactor is roughly 6.8-50.3 miles in diameter and in this event it released $5.8 cdot 10^{25} J$ of energy.



To figure out how fast a body would have to travel to impart that energy the equation is $E=(1/2)mv^2$.



Assuming average mans body ~80kg (ASSUMING) we get a velocity of $~1.2 cdot 10^{12} m/s$ which is about 4000 times the speed of light.



To scale that out to 150 mile wide crater would be far beyond anything even worth mentioning. Now if this god being were super massively dense, maybe the math would work out.






share|improve this answer










New contributor




Sonvar is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.









The Chicxulub impactor is roughly 6.8-50.3 miles in diameter and in this event it released $5.8 cdot 10^{25} J$ of energy.



To figure out how fast a body would have to travel to impart that energy the equation is $E=(1/2)mv^2$.



Assuming average mans body ~80kg (ASSUMING) we get a velocity of $~1.2 cdot 10^{12} m/s$ which is about 4000 times the speed of light.



To scale that out to 150 mile wide crater would be far beyond anything even worth mentioning. Now if this god being were super massively dense, maybe the math would work out.







share|improve this answer










New contributor




Sonvar is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.









share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer








edited 2 hours ago









L.Dutch

77.9k26186380




77.9k26186380






New contributor




Sonvar is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.









answered 2 hours ago









Sonvar

813




813




New contributor




Sonvar is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.





New contributor





Sonvar is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.






Sonvar is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.








  • 1




    It would be better if you used the relativistic formula for kinetic energy
    – L.Dutch
    45 mins ago






  • 1




    Gotta agree with @L.Dutch. If using the classical formula gives an answer like that then it’s time to move up a gear.
    – Joe Bloggs
    39 mins ago






  • 1




    For example, a quick estimate using this calculator pegs the required speed at 0.9999999999999 times the speed of light. Don’t get me wrong, that’s still obscene, but at least it’s physically possible!
    – Joe Bloggs
    32 mins ago














  • 1




    It would be better if you used the relativistic formula for kinetic energy
    – L.Dutch
    45 mins ago






  • 1




    Gotta agree with @L.Dutch. If using the classical formula gives an answer like that then it’s time to move up a gear.
    – Joe Bloggs
    39 mins ago






  • 1




    For example, a quick estimate using this calculator pegs the required speed at 0.9999999999999 times the speed of light. Don’t get me wrong, that’s still obscene, but at least it’s physically possible!
    – Joe Bloggs
    32 mins ago








1




1




It would be better if you used the relativistic formula for kinetic energy
– L.Dutch
45 mins ago




It would be better if you used the relativistic formula for kinetic energy
– L.Dutch
45 mins ago




1




1




Gotta agree with @L.Dutch. If using the classical formula gives an answer like that then it’s time to move up a gear.
– Joe Bloggs
39 mins ago




Gotta agree with @L.Dutch. If using the classical formula gives an answer like that then it’s time to move up a gear.
– Joe Bloggs
39 mins ago




1




1




For example, a quick estimate using this calculator pegs the required speed at 0.9999999999999 times the speed of light. Don’t get me wrong, that’s still obscene, but at least it’s physically possible!
– Joe Bloggs
32 mins ago




For example, a quick estimate using this calculator pegs the required speed at 0.9999999999999 times the speed of light. Don’t get me wrong, that’s still obscene, but at least it’s physically possible!
– Joe Bloggs
32 mins ago


















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