They are tiny compared to the earth. I can hardly imagine they even wipe out lives within 1000km radiused area, which still is a tiny compared to the earths surface size. Asteroids are, just giant rocks right? not atomic bombs, wich gives an increasing explosion due to it’s chain reaction. So why?
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>Asteroids are, just giant rocks right? not atomic bombs, wich gives an increasing explosion due to it’s chain reaction.
The giant rock bit actually makes them *more* destructive. A 1 km diameter asteroid would be hitting earth at around 17 km/s and would have roughly 50 gigatons of energy. About 1000x more than the largest bomb we ever created
Nuclear weapons are also detonated in the air to avoid wasting energy on digging a hole. The big rock will plow into the ground and spew huge quantities of debris into the air
Nuclear weapons are impressive for their destructive potential in their limited size, but the energy in a big hunk of stone moving at orbital velocities is insane
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