How many megatons would it take to destroy a planet?

You need about 2E32 J to completely obliterate the planet. That gives about 5E16 megatons. That’s 50 quadrillion.

How big is a 50 megaton explosion?

The Soviet Union built the largest thermonuclear bomb in human history. The name of the bomb was Tsar Bomba. It had a yield of 50 megatons of TNT. Fireball radius was 2.3 km or covering 16.61 square kilometers.

How heavy is a megaton bomb?

nuclear weapon yields … words kiloton (1,000 tons) and megaton (1,000,000 tons) to describe their blast energy in equivalent weights of the conventional chemical explosive TNT.

How many megatons is a nuclear bomb?

Nuclear bombs have had yields between 10 tons TNT (the W54) and 50 megatons for the Tsar Bomba (see TNT equivalent). A thermonuclear weapon weighing little more than 2,400 pounds (1,100 kg) can release energy equal to more than 1.2 million tons of TNT (5.0 PJ).

How many nuclear bombs would it take to end humanity?

New research argues that 100 nuclear weapons is the “pragmatic limit” for any country to have in its arsenal. Any aggressor nation unleashing more than 100 nuclear weapons could ultimately devastate its own society, scientists warn.

What would happen if all nukes were launched?

But assuming every warhead had a megatonne rating, the energy released by their simultaneous detonation wouldn’t destroy the Earth. The nuclear explosion would also unleash a pulse of electromagnetic energy that would wreck everything from national power grids to microchips around the world.

What happens when a nuclear explosion hits a building?

As the video above explains, most of the energy released in a nuclear explosion is in the blast, which drives air away from the site of the explosion, creating sudden changes in air pressure that can crush objects and knock down buildings.

What is the force of a 1 megaton bomb?

Within a 6-km (3.7-mile) radius of a 1-megaton bomb, blast waves will produce 180 tonnes of force on the walls of all two-storey buildings, and wind speeds of 255 km/h (158 mph). In a 1-km (0.6-mile) radius, the peak pressure is four times that amount, and wind speeds can reach 756 km/h (470 mph). Technically, humans can withstand

What is the impact of a single nuclear bomb?

First, let’s get this out of the way – there is no clear-cut impact of a single nuclear bomb, because it depends on a whole lot of things, including the weather on the day it’s dropped, the time of day it’s detonated, the geographical layout of where it hits, and whether it explodes on the ground or in the air.

How far away from a nuclear bomb would you be blind?

For a bomb that size, people up to 21 km (13 miles) away would experience flash blindness on a clear day, and people up to 85 km (52.8 miles) away would be temporarily blinded on a clear night.