| abstract | - Based on the OBD wiki: Want to find out how much energy it takes to blow up a planet? This is the way to do it. Gravitational Binding Energy is defined as the amount of energy it would take to scatter the mass of a gravitationally bound body to the point that its own gravity will not pull it back together again. There are precise calculations for this via integration, but a good approximation can be achieved with the following formula: File:Gravitational Binding Energy.jpg Where U = GBE, M = the mass of the body in question, r = its radius, and G = the gravitational constant. Ignoring this formula often leads to vast underestimates of the energy required to destroy astronomical objects (for example, some people assume it scales linearly with mass or volume). Please note that this formula only works on objects that are mostly held together by their own gravity (meaning: large objects in space such as asteroids, moons, planets, stars, etc.) It also doesn't work on black holes, for obvious reasons. -Earth's moon (Luna): 1.24e29j -Earth: 2.24e32j (calculated with a more accurate method than the above formula) -The sun (Sol): 6.87e41j -Average neutron star: 5.23e46j SD.net's Planetary Parameter Calculator gives a simplified approach to finding a celestial body's GBE.
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