The passage describes a hypothetical scenario in which the moon is destroyed by a golf ball traveling at incredible speeds. The story begins with a sudden, catastrophic event in which the night sky is illuminated by a bright flash, and a burning ball appears in the sky. As the scene unfolds, it becomes clear that the moon has been destroyed, and the narrator explores the possibilities of what could have caused such a disaster.
The narrator then embarks on a thought experiment, imagining what would happen if a golf ball were to strike the moon at increasingly high speeds. At first, the ball's impact would be negligible, but as its speed increases, the effects become more dramatic. Eventually, the ball's kinetic energy exceeds the energy of a massive nuclear explosion, and it becomes a "terrifying monster" with infinite mass and energy.
The passage concludes by describing the aftermath of the moon's destruction, in which the remnants of the moon are transformed into a cloud of high-temperature plasma that floods the Earth and the solar system with light and radiation. The narrator notes that while the destruction of the moon would have significant effects on the Earth's tides and the night sky, it would not necessarily lead to the extinction of human life.
Throughout the passage, the narrator invites the reader to consider the possibilities and implications of such a catastrophic event, and to share their thoughts and opinions in the comments.
Here are the key facts extracted from the text:
1. The Vredefort crater is the largest impact crater on Earth, with a diameter of 250-300 kilometers.
2. Giant holes like Vredefort crater are formed by the fall of meteorites and asteroids with a diameter of more than 10 kilometers.
3. The maximum recorded speed of meteorites is about 70 kilometers per second, which is 70 times faster than the record-breaking jet airplane.
4. The moon has no atmosphere, so space bodies can reach its surface without heating up or collapsing from friction.
5. The largest impact crater in the solar system is on the reverse side of the moon, with a diameter of up to 2,500 kilometers.
6. A golf ball with a mass of 46 grams cannot threaten the moon in any way, even at high speeds.
7. At 99.99% of the speed of light, the kinetic energy of a golf ball would exceed 60 megatons, more powerful than the Soviet Tsar Bomba.
8. The energy of an explosion of 7 billion tons of TNT equivalent is comparable to the sum of all nuclear arsenals in the world.
9. If a golf ball were accelerated to the speed of light, it would have infinite mass and energy, and could potentially destroy the moon.
10. The moon's destruction would create a cloud of high-temperature incandescent plasma that would flood the Earth and the entire solar system with light and radioactive radiation.
11. The mass of plasma would not be large enough to have a lasting effect on the inhabitants of the Earth for decades, nor even a year.
12. The burning plasma would cool down due to radiation and eventually solidify, creating an asteroid belt around the Earth.
13. The orbits of these asteroids would not be stable, and from time to time, they would try to attack the surface of the Earth.
14. The atmosphere of our planet would be able to protect its inhabitants from these asteroids.
15. The destruction of the moon would result in the loss of tides and the inability to build tidal power plants or use the moon's gravity to generate electricity.
16. The night sky would become much darker, but it would be strewn with a huge number of stars that were previously not observable with the naked eye.