A while ago I asked my dad the following question:
If a deep-space object were to magically dunked into the ocean (id est without falling through the atmosphere and doing the whole deep impact thing), how much water would it freeze?
Dad had no idea. So I’mma gonna figure it out.
To start out, we’re gonna use the Oort cloud for some reference numbers. Since there are 6 trillion objects in the Oort cloud, and the Oort cloud’s total mass is about 40 times the Earth, and the Earth weighs, uh 5.9736×10^24 kg
, then let’s say our insteller ice cube weighs 79,648,000,000,000 kg. Huh. That’s a lot. Next, it’s important to know that the Oort cloud objects are at about 4K. Whoo-hoo.
Next, let’s say our object is made of pure iron. Yes, the Oort cloud objects aren’t made of pure iron. But screw them. Since it’s specific heat capacity (at 298.15K anyways) is 25.10 J·mol^−1·K^−1, our chunk-o-intersteller iron could absorb, er… 1,426,233,324,379,980 Joules to raise it to ice temperature.
Now we’re gonna use pure water because I can’t find in a cursory search the specific heat capacity of ocean water. The SHC of pure water is 4.184 J/(g·K). Let’s say the ocean’s average temperature is 288.15 K. And we need to bring that down to 273.15 K.
Aw fuck it. I could go for some rum.
