That's because the opening line reads: "The moon blew up with no warning and with no apparent reason."
We don't how the moon would suddenly explode in the real world — it's unlikely. But the way Stephenson describes the events that would happen next carries a surprising amount of truth.
Tech Insider spoke to several physicists who have considered this nightmare scenario. What they had to say did not bring us comfort.
Warning: Mild spoilers follow that for the situation that sets up Stephenson's science fiction novel "Seveneves."
What if the moon blew up?
"Seveneves" falls into what's sometimes known as the "hard sci-fi" category. The classification can be broadly interpreted, but it tends to include stories that strive to keep things within the realm of scientific plausibility.
That plausibility gives authors a lot to work with: In our world we can already rewrite the genetic code for life, are planning missions to land on Mars, and even working on sending fleets of tiny spacecraft to investigate star systems that are light-years away.
So what would happen if the moon were to be mysteriously blown up — perhaps the hardest thing to explain in the book?
In short, a fiery rain of moon debris that could last for thousands of years, wiping out almost all life on the surface of Earth.
But here's how physicists say that could play out.
More
"Seveneves" falls into what's sometimes known as the "hard sci-fi" category. The classification can be broadly interpreted, but it tends to include stories that strive to keep things within the realm of scientific plausibility.
That plausibility gives authors a lot to work with: In our world we can already rewrite the genetic code for life, are planning missions to land on Mars, and even working on sending fleets of tiny spacecraft to investigate star systems that are light-years away.
So what would happen if the moon were to be mysteriously blown up — perhaps the hardest thing to explain in the book?
In short, a fiery rain of moon debris that could last for thousands of years, wiping out almost all life on the surface of Earth.
But here's how physicists say that could play out.
More
5 comments:
Whenever an asteroid strikes the moon it rings like a bell for DAYS.That depends on the size of the asteroid of course,but it also indicates that the moon is hollow beyond an app 500' thick surface.It also indicates that the moon has a large concentration of metal within that 500' thick shell.It ALSO indicates that the moon would be easier than one would think to blow up.If a crater on the moon actually went deep enough to enter the hollow core,any nuclear capable country has an arsenal sufficient enough to blow up the moon,and the technology to get the nukes to the moon has existed for decades.Getting the nukes in position would make any given country the most powerful on Earth.
To destroy the moon you would have to overcome a little thing called "binding energy" which is essentially how much input you'd need to make sure the chunks from the explosion or energy input or what have you would eject away from themselves. Given the mass of the moon (estimated at 7.3 x 10^22 kg you would need 2.9 x 10^13 (29,000,000,000,000) megatons of TNT. The largest hydrogen bomb ever tested had a 50 megaton TNT yield. So you would need about 500 billion tsar bomba's to destroy the moon and overcome it's binding energy. So no, any nuclear capable country could not destory the moon. Sorry to burst your bubble :)
2:36 you have a very interesting point , it's like the top of your head .
Hey, 430, at least 236 did the math. 140 forgot to figure in the center is cheese filled like Little Caesar's crust.
Try doing THAT math, 236!
Well, the earth tides would stop, which would pretty much kill the oceans and everything else.
Second question, who would ask such an idiotic question? This has NO possibility of happening! This is nothing but flag waving panic generating hooplah.
Al Gore needs to go into the hospital if he's behind this.
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