🚀 go-pugleaf

-From: jfw@ksr.com (John F. Woods)
-Subject: Re: Swift-Tuttle Comet a threat to earth?
-Date: 2 Nov 92 17:28:43 GMT

-sheaffer@netcom.com (Robert Sheaffer) writes:
->I should think that, given that a comet consists largely of ice and
->other volatiles, even one good-sized H-bomb placed directly into the
->nucleus would pretty much eliminate any "threat to earth". Seems it
->would be mostly vaporized and scattered.

-The thermal mass of a several-km-diameter comet is quite a bit larger than
-you think.  Furthermore, most of it is "ice" at just a few Kelvin (depending
-on how far out its orbit takes it, and how long it spends there), which means
-that "ice" is going to be every bit as hard as the formerly-molten silicate
-you're standing on...

A number of science fiction writers seem to assume that water ice at
cryogenic temperatures would be many times stronger than ice at slightly
below freezing. Is there any indication that this is true?

John Roberts
roberts@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov