With current human science and technology, can we completely destroy the earth?

This article is based on answering similar questions from netizens.

First of all, we need to make clear a concept, that is, destroying humans or the earth's ecology does not equal destroying the earth. Humans or ecology are just some parasites on the surface of the earth. If these parasites are destroyed, the earth will at most blink, and will still rotate and revolve leisurely without losing a cloud.

To explain this problem below, some calculations are required. Even a junior high school student can understand the formulas and calculations, but it is a bit confusing to explain. I hope that friends who are interested will read it patiently and carefully and participate in the discussion.

Let’s first talk about what energy holds the Earth together.

The Earth is a rocky planet with a radius of about 6,371 kilometers, a density of 5.517 grams per cubic centimeter, or 5.517 tons per cubic meter, and a mass of about 596.5 trillion kilograms. The force that holds so much matter together is gravity. To destroy the Earth, you have to destroy this gravity and blow the Earth apart and return it to dust.

Next, we need to use two formulas. One is the kinetic energy formula: E=1/2mv^2, where E represents energy, m represents the mass of the celestial body, and v represents the speed of the celestial body. That is, energy is equal to half the mass of the celestial body multiplied by the square of the speed of movement. The earth revolves around the sun at a speed of 29.97 kilometers per second. Based on this formula, we can calculate that the kinetic energy of the earth is about 2.68*10^33 joules, or 26.8 trillion trillion trillion joules.

The second is the gravitational binding energy formula: U = 3/5Gm^2/r, where U represents binding energy, G is the gravitational constant, m is the mass of the celestial body, and r is the radius of the celestial body. That is, the gravitational binding energy is equal to three-fifths of the gravitational constant multiplied by the square of the mass of the celestial body divided by the radius of the celestial body. Based on this formula, we can calculate that the gravitational binding energy of the earth is about 2.24*10^32 joules, or 224 million million million million million joules.

Gravity is the smallest of the four fundamental forces discovered in the universe, but as the mass increases and the distance between matter decreases, this force increases exponentially. Therefore, for a planet like the Earth that is held together by gravity, the gravitational energy generated is very large. To dismember and crush the Earth, the gravitational binding energy of the Earth must be completely offset, which requires at least 224 trillion trillion joules of energy.

Now let’s take a look at how much energy humans have stored.

The first energy with huge destructive power is nuclear weapons. According to the world's top authoritative data released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, as of January 2022, the world has a total stockpile of 12,705 nuclear warheads. These nuclear warheads are calculated at 1 million tons each, with a total equivalent of 12.7 billion tons of TNT equivalent. According to this estimate, the equivalent of each ton of TNT explosive is about 4184,000,000 joules, and the total equivalent of global nuclear bombs is about 5.3*10^19 joules.

If all these nuclear bombs were scattered all over the place, the immediate destructive power and the subsequent long-term damage of the nuclear winter would likely destroy humanity and the ecology, but the global ecology would not be completely destroyed, and perhaps a small number of humans would still survive.

Because the asteroid that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago had an impact energy of about 5*10^23 joules, and an explosion equivalent of 120 trillion tons of TNT, which is about 10,000 times the total amount of nuclear bombs humans have now. Even with this huge energy, it only caused the extinction of 85% of species. Millions of years later, species began to flourish again, and many new species appeared, and primates evolved. Humans stood out from primates and became the masters of the earth.

The impact of a Cretaceous asteroid on the Earth left only a crater with a diameter of 280 kilometers on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. It seemed to have only tickled the Earth and had almost no effect on the Earth's rotation and revolution, because the explosion equivalent was only about one-four hundred millionth of the Earth's binding energy.

The Earth's nuclear bombs would need to be increased by 4 trillion times on the existing basis to have the possibility of destroying the Earth. Therefore, all the Earth's nuclear bombs are even more absurd than an ant trying to shake a tree. It is not worth mentioning at all. How could it destroy the Earth? So what kind of energy is needed to destroy the Earth?

Learn more about some cosmic events that could destroy Earth.

Human beings are still at a very low level of energy use. The total energy consumed each year, including all energy consumption in production, life, eating, drinking, defecating and urinating, is about 5.56*10^18 joules. The energy of the Cretaceous asteroid impact was more than 900 times this energy, and the binding energy of the earth is 40 trillion times this energy.

The total energy radiated into space by the sun per second is about 3.78*10^26 joules, or 378 trillion joules. If all the sun's energy could be collected without any escaping, it would take 165 hours to gather enough energy to destroy the earth. The earth can only receive one 2.2 billionth of the sun's total radiation energy per second, or about 1.72*10^17 joules per second. If all the solar energy was collected without wasting any, about 5.4*10^24 joules of energy could be obtained in a year.

It would take more than 40 million years to collect enough energy to destroy the Earth. This energy can only blow up the Earth, and the Earth fragments will probably still circle around the Sun in the Earth's orbit, and with the interaction of gravity, a new Earth may gradually form.

Therefore, to completely destroy the Earth without leaving any residue, even greater power is needed, which is not something that humans can achieve now or even in the foreseeable future. This kind of power to completely destroy the Earth can only be achieved by cosmic celestial events, which include but are not limited to: giant planet collisions, violent solar explosions, black holes entering the solar system, close-range gamma-ray bursts, etc.

When the Earth was first formed 4.5 billion years ago, there was a planet called "Theia" by scientists, which was about the size of Mars. The collision with the Earth resulted in the Earth's axis being tilted by about 23.5 degrees. Since then, the Earth has been orbiting with its neck tilted, and there are four seasons throughout the year. The impact caused the Earth's crust to break and the magma fragments that flew into space condensed into the Moon, giving the Earth a natural satellite. This consequence became one of the most important conditions for the birth of life on Earth.

In other words, even if a planet the size of Mars hits the Earth, it will not destroy the Earth. If we look at the Earth's orbital momentum, it would take a planet the size of the Earth to hit it head-on at the same speed for the Earth to be completely destroyed.

What do you think of this result? Welcome to discuss.

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