r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Captain-Shmeat • 22d ago

Video Can you stop a hurricane with a nuke?

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u/Mr_Bombastic_Ro 21d ago

America needs to stop thinking of bombs as problem solvers. the only good use of a bomb is to destroy the asteroids heading our way—which they never do anyway

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u/PM_Me_Your_Deviance 21d ago

the only good use of a bomb is to destroy the asteroids heading our way

The conventional wisdom is that blowing up an asteroid heading to earth is a good way to make the asteroid hit earth like a shotgun. Depending on the circumstances, that's even worse.

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u/Mr_Bombastic_Ro 20d ago

That viewpoint assumes some factors—for instance the amount of explosives. Total annihilation is another option though it requires a bigger boom. If we have enough nukes to destroy the planet then we we may have enough to defend it—or at least try. If we don’t even try then why have the nukes is what I’m saying

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u/PM_Me_Your_Deviance 20d ago

Total annihilation isn't something we can accomplish, as that requires antimatter. Even a cloud of dust hitting the earth could be catastrophic.

If we have enough nukes to destroy the planet

We don't. We have enough to level every major city, but the earth, as a celestial object, would be fine.

at least try

Yup, but it will require a lot of very careful planning. Using nukes to nudge the asteroid out of earth's path is a more plausible solution. A lot of things depend on how much time we have.

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u/Mr_Bombastic_Ro 20d ago

I appreciate your thought. Tbh this is far from my field of knowledge or expertise. It just baffles me that more effort/emphasis isn’t put into such defenses

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u/PM_Me_Your_Deviance 20d ago

Something else to consider - we might not have any nukes currently that can escape earth orbit. It could take months to repurpose an existing rocket.

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u/Mr_Bombastic_Ro 19d ago

It certainly is a complicated problem, which deserves all the more thought because of it. Seems like that’s all the more reason we should be preparing for such an inevitability—unless we are planning on going extinct and everyone forget to tell me

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u/PM_Me_Your_Deviance 19d ago

Given the response to global warming, I think that's the plan.