Top 10 Ways to Destroy the Earth

[mugaliens]

Ok, BAUTers, let's rip this one to shreds. Shouldn't be difficult with the plethora of talent residing on this forum.

http://www.livescience.com/technology/destroy_earth_mp.html

Key quote:

This is not a guide for those whose aim is merely to wipe out humanity. This is a guide for those who do not want the Earth to be there anymore.

Let's get cracking!

[Nereid]

I wonder how the "feasibility" criterion will be assessed - any suggestions?

Anyway, in a rough order of certainty (destroy the Earth):

-> make it collide with a sol+ mass black hole

-> make it collide with a sol+ mass star (main-sequence, giant, white dwarf ... macht es nicht)

-> make it collide with a Jupiter+ mass planet/brown dwarf

-> move a high-luminosity quasar close by, so that Earth is directly in the jet

-> have a black hole (sol+, IMBH, SMBH) pass sufficiently close by that Earth is ripped to shreds by the tidal forces

-> get a magnetar to have a starquake, within a few au of the Earth

-> arrange for a GRB to go off, within a few au of the Earth

[GDwarf]

Heh, the site that that references has been updated and moved since then. I'm also fairly certain that it was that that directed me to Badastronomy.com, although I can't find the link any more.

Anywho, the site can be located here (http://qntm.org/destroy)

[sarongsong]

Deja vu all over again and again and again and again; 1 (http://www.bautforum.com/showthread.php?t=19280&highlight=destroy), 2 (http://www.bautforum.com/showthread.php?t=39592&highlight=destroy), 3 (http://www.bautforum.com/showthread.php?t=15449&highlight=destroy), 4 (http://www.bautforum.com/showthread.php?t=16700&highlight=destroy)...

[Celestial Mechanic]

I still favor collecting all those "X free hours of AOL" floppies and CD-ROMS together until they collapse the Earth into a black hole. There should be enough by 2012! ;)
:lol: :lol: :lol:

[sarongsong]

The CDs do make for excellent bird/squirrel deterrants suspended in my vegetable garden!

[antoniseb]

Of the things on the list, gray ooze looked like a realistic possibility.
This was the top ten list, so he left off number 11: building giant rail guns and systematically launching parts of the Earth into other celestial objects (the Moon, Mars, Jupiter, etc) until there's nothing substantial left here. Which is much easier than many of the ones he posted.

[Ronald Brak]

Why not just boil the darn planet away? Just build a large mirror as close to the sun as the material you're using allows and concentrate sunlight on the earth. Get the earth hot enough and it will lose lighter elements to space. The more material it loses the lesser its gravity and the harder it will be to hold onto material. If you built it close enough to the sun it wouldn't have to be too many times larger than the earth itself to be effective.

[GDwarf]

Why not just boil the darn planet away? Just build a large mirror as close to the sun as the material you're using allows and concentrate sunlight on the earth. Get the earth hot enough and it will lose lighter elements to space. The more material it loses the lesser its gravity and the harder it will be to hold onto material. If you built it close enough to the sun it wouldn't have to be too many times larger than the earth itself to be effective.
He mentions that on the site, the big problem being that once you've got a thick enough layer of gas around the Earth it becomes really hard to heat the surface.

[FrostByte]

I know! AOL: the only ISP that is a threath to the coaster-industry.

[Swift]

Of the things on the list, gray ooze looked like a realistic possibility.
This was the top ten list, so he left off number 11: building giant rail guns and systematically launching parts of the Earth into other celestial objects (the Moon, Mars, Jupiter, etc) until there's nothing substantial left here. Which is much easier than many of the ones he posted.
Much easier being a relative position only. ;)

[Ronald Brak]

A: The gray ooze is replicating out of control! The earth is doomed!

B: Where?

A: Well it's not very big at the moment on account of energy problems. It has to digest the material of the bench for both energy and raw materials.

B: So you're saying the planet is under threat from a spot of mould? (Sprays benchtop with Lysol.) I'm going to get some coffee now. Try not to destroy the planet while I'm away.

[BigDon]

No, the best plot to destroy the planet was one that was foiled by Wonder Warthog. The villian's plan was to hollow out the Earth, fill it with gunpowder and then light the fuse. Had a big diagram and everthing.


(You youngsters might have to google him. His alter-ego was the mild mannered reporter Philbert Desenex)

[farmerjumperdon]

The CDs do make for excellent bird/squirrel deterrants suspended in my vegetable garden!

Hey, I do that too. I've made a couple of neat little mobiles out of them. Birds seem to be really spooked by the moving glare and reflections.