Science Memes

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submitted 3 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Would vaporization slow the material though? Perhaps the end result wasn't a manhole escaping the solar system but a huge collection of microscopic metal fragments scattershot that direction. Which really makes the Mass Effect quote even more relevant to a huge amount of aliens somewhere.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Vaporization would certainly slow the material. It's transitioning kinetic energy into thermal.

Also, the vaporized iron would disperse outward rather than stay coherent.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago

It would spread outward a bit, but the entire kinetic energy and momentum in the system would remain the same. But, the more it broke apart, the more surface area it would have. The more surface area, the more surface exposed to heating. The more heating, the more it would break apart. I'm guessing that it was a silicon, iron and oxygen plasma without individual grains by the time it hit the upper atmosphere.