What would be the easiest way to OBLITERATE THE ENTIRE PLANET?

[Kerbface]

Also, the moon wouldn't work. Earth has already been hit by a planet like object before and earth is still here. The planet like object was also the object that ended up becoming our moon.

I know, but it would probably smash a large chunk out of it and cause absolutely gigantic tremors, altering the shape of the Earth and turning it into a big volcanic wasteland. Yes, in a few billion years it would spring back, but that's an awful long time.

[royalkingofgames]

Insult the American government.

[Brabbit1987]

Also, the moon wouldn't work. Earth has already been hit by a planet like object before and earth is still here. The planet like object was also the object that ended up becoming our moon.

A planet like object? This is the first I have heard of this. From what I remember it was a big object, but not planet sized, and the moon is actually a huge chunk of earth that broke off from the collision.

Maybe I am just out of date on my information on that matter? I also could have sworn it wasn't actually proven, just a theory.

[Tex_NL]

According to the Giant impact hypothesis it was a Mars sized planet referred to as Theia. Indeed it is just theory but it is the only one that fits the facts.

[nhnifong]

Insult the American government.

Heheh good one

[bmcloughlin]

give jeb MOAR BOOSTERS

[mediamagnet]

Total annihilation wise would it not be easier and more effective to work form the inside I'm sure there is something in the current scope of technology that could wreck the core, jiggle the plate tectonics, or heck even set off the super volcano that makes up Yellowstone National Park. The volcano itself would put enough ash into the air to block most of the planet from getting heat so it would be a bit of a slow painful death, but mix that with lets say kicking nuke plants into meltdown and the combined mix of ash and radiation would most likely render the planet void of life, then to destroy the planet it's self wait for the several million years for the sun to go red giant.

[MaverickSawyer]

nhnifong's got a point with the asteroid one. However, my money's on redirecting a comet from the Kuiper belt. MUCH faster at impact. However, if you're talking about wrecking the structural integrity of the planet, then there's no EASY way to do it...

[Salun]

Well to be the science nerd I think we have to define by what do we consider to be "destroying the planet"

For the purpose of argument we'll define it as "Adding enough entropy to the planet that it can not accrete again into a planet"

From this point that means its fairly straight foreward to destroy a planet.

You can use tidal forces to wrench the planet apart. So say have a Jupiter sized planet pass by. It would overcame the local gravity of the planet and rip it apart. Or perhaps a black hole. Which would rip it apart then pull it into the event horizon

You could theoretically heat the planets interior until the outward momentum of the the planets matter overcomes gravity. Essentailly vaporing the planet into a gas could of subatomic particles.

Hitting the planet with something fast and hard may resurface the planet but not add enough energy to it blow the planet up.

You could always be pateint and let the planets sun go super nova or turn into a red giant. The solar winds would vaporize the planet and carry it out into interplanetary space.

Its not impossible. Just impractical

[Kerbol Prime]

Easiest way is to wait. Earth's going to be obliterated in a few billion years once the sun bloats up and moves on to the final stages of its life. So now you can die and not worry about antimatter and black holes, cause the sun is there to help you.

[Justy]

You're too late. The International Earth Destruction Advisory Board is quite clear on the fact that the Earth was destroyed in September 2008. They refused my very well laid out proposal for a re-evaluation in 2010, based on the fact that my paycheques were directly proportional to the number of times I was able to get to work, and getting to work was dependent on the Earth's gravitational pull and the friction provided by its surface, yet there was no statistically significant change in my pay when the Earth was supposedly destroyed. So their decision stands, and I guess the Earth is gone.

We've been receiving similar reports from several sources for the last

several years but unfortunately the Board feels that the evidence

available at the moment is more anecdotal than concrete. If further

sources present themselves then we may reopen the investigation, but

for the time being we believe that an Earth-Destruction Alert Level of

Red is still the most appropriate and civilians should continue to

operate under the assumption that the Earth has been destroyed.

Thank you very much for your data.

Regards

Sam Hughes

International Earth-Destruction Advisor

[Russian Flame]

One way is to Detonate thousands of hydrogen bomb in low orbit causing the ozone layer to implode and exposing the Earth or an other planets with some sort of atmosphere to massive amounts of radiation and heat causeing a most the worlds volcanos to Explode and there for heat the curst to the point of Melting into the planets core.

Edited July 10, 2013 by Russian Flame

[Doctor_Deep]

Hmmm, perhaps a elegant way to do it is somehow to cancel all the gravity holding the earth together so that it would end up massless, and watch it spin apart in an ever expanding molten ring....

[Joshington]

Well, if we ever made contact with another intelligent life form that is more advanced than us, we could insult them or try shooting at them. Then they would just blow up the planet for us.

[MmPMSFmM]

Take ALL the nukes, spread them evenly across the earth, 100 km underground and detonate them all at once. That would at least create a big mess.

[Apollo1391]

the easiest way would be launching a billion tsar bombas information here -> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Bomba but the tsar bomba is 1,000,000 times bigger explosion then the Hiroshima bomb it was only tested in space or the upper atmosphere

[WhiteWeasel]

It's probably technobabble, but In a sci-fi 4x game I play there is a missile that deals damage by locally accelerating quantum entropy. Technological limitations aside, would that actually do anything?

[Halsfury]

I mean we could destroy the crust with nuclear bombs, but would that count as obliterating the entire planet? What if we (Inspired by the moving the Earth thread, but easier!) blasted nuclear bombs retrograde on the moon and caused it to veer it's course enough to collide with the Earth?

The easiest way to destroy the planet is politics, it is proven to be 100% reliable and effective.

It's far cheaper than ray guns in fact it creates a net profit which can be reinvested in further destruction:sticktongue:

[Themohawkninja]

The easiest way to destroy the planet is politics, it is proven to be 100% reliable and effective.

It's far cheaper than ray guns in fact it creates a net profit which can be reinvested in further destruction:sticktongue:

Not unless I FILLIBUSTER YOUR POLITICS!!!!!!

It's hard to say what would truly be the easiest way to completely destroy the Earth. I suppose the easiest (in terms of a lack of human effort) would be if we were unlucky enough to end up within a few dozen AU of a star when the Milky Way and Andromeda collide.

[Kilmeister]

Just an FYI: Anyone who clicked on tomf's link is now on the NSA watchlist

I mean if they're recording people who talk about building pipe bombs, they probably have a whole department dedicated to people talking about destroying the planet!

[kahlzun]

Just an FYI: Anyone who clicked on tomf's link is now on the NSA watchlist

I mean if they're recording people who talk about building pipe bombs, they probably have a whole department dedicated to people talking about destroying the planet!

Considering this entire website is about building rockets, there are numerous challenges related to building ICBMs or weaponising our rockets somehow, and the number of times explosions are mentioned on this site, we are all probably on a watchlist somewhere.

[EvilotionCR2]

Do absolutely nothing and wait till sun explodes.

[Winter Man]

Considering this entire website is about building rockets, there are numerous challenges related to building ICBMs or weaponising our rockets somehow, and the number of times explosions are mentioned on this site, we are all probably on a watchlist somewhere.

Probably North Korea's, judging by their 'very Kerbal' satellite launches!

[tomf]

As my link points out to obliterate the planet entirely is a very different proposition to merely wiping out all life upon it. The stockpile of nuclear weapons wont even be enough to kill all life - deep sea life, life in caves, roaches etc are all going to survive.

If you used all the raw materials in the planet to make bombs you are just going to end up with a hot lump of rock.

However by a scary coincidence if you were able to p-p fuse all of the of the hydrogen in the oceans it would be almost exactly the energy required to use a rail gun to slowly fire every single kilogram of earth into an escape orbit.

[Winter Man]

Did you account for the Earth getting lighter thus requiring less energy each subsequent launch?