Question

A large asteroid of mass 2.7x1022 kg, is heading directly toward Earth, for a major catastrophic impact. Assume it hits the Earth surface with relative speed of 44 km/s. Neglecting the effects of Earth’s atmosphere, A) Determine the asteroid’s initial speed vi when it was a distance of 9 Earth radii (9x6400km) from center of Earth. B) Determine the change of Earth speed due to the impact or the collision with this asteroid. C) If the density of the asteroid is 3000 kg/m3 , estimate is diameter. D) To estimate the destructive power of the asteroid, by comparing to the Hiroshima nuclear bomb around 60 TJ (trillion joules = 1012 Joules). Find the ratio or how many times is more powerful.

Answer 1