why, if a big enough meteor hits the earth, is the impact like a nuclear bomb?

Question

why, if a big enough meteor hits the earth, is the impact like a nuclear bomb?

In: 1

Answer 1

When most people think about nuclear bombs they think “radiation”. But the point of a nuclear bomb is not to spread radiation (we describe _those_ bombs as “dirty bombs”). The point of a nuke is to *use* the radioactivity to create a bigger explosion. The point of a nuke is to make the biggest possible explosion.

So a meteor doesn’t have to release a bunch of radiation to be compared to a nuke. It just has to make a big explosion, which happens if you release a lot of energy quickly. And big rocks traveling at tens of thousands of kilometers per hour release *lots* of energy when they hit a planet (or even just when they hit the atmosphere).