this post was submitted on 16 May 2026
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I could see them attaching rockets to it to try this. Or maybe move it into earth orbit to mine it.
If they brought it to the surface what happens when it goes through the atmosphere? Does gold “burn”?
Not if that size is accurate. gold price at 10^5 EUR/kg, a quintillion being 10^18, makes 10^13 kilos, at ~20000 kilos per cubic metre 5*10^8 cubic metres, or a block of 1000x1000x500 meters (~ sphere of 1km diameter), and that's only for a single quintillion, and assuming it's all gold, no rock. Nothing of that size burns up on atmospheric entry
Thanks for doing the math. I was wondering if some portion of the gold burns off. Also does it kill us all on impact?
To be honest I don't know (also not OP) but if the gold is one solid chunk there might be chance that it will function as a large enough heatsink that it wont "burn"... But then again it's probably not just one chunk... So some of the outer layers might "burn" as you say, but the gold atoms are not lost. That would require a nuclear reaction... Instead some of that gold would turn into liquid, and some would turn into gas. In this state it might reach with other elements in the atmosphere, but if it doesn't it will turn back into solid form again when it cools. In that case the result would be microscopic gold clumps spread over a huge area.
That makes more sense, thanks. So those pieces would be harder to recover. I’m trying to figure out how much of it they lose in such an operation. Is it like half of the amount? Or is it like single digit percentages?
I suppose even if they lose half, it would still be better than trying to put it in earth orbit and trying to mine it there. So ultimately that would be the preferred approach.
And maybe not kill millions of people in the process.
I just got home to use a proper calculator instead of estimating in my head, and with 700 quintillion (as per the screenshot / meme), and gold density less "roundabouted", at 19000 kilos / cubic metre, this would be the same as a solid gold sphere of 8.9 kilometres in diameter (3rd root of 700 is 8.88 - and wow, my rough estimate of 1km for 1 quintillion was spot on! :)
And yes, that would absolutely be a planet killer asteroid. I don't see how anything but primitive life forms on Earth could survive that: https://www.space.com/asteroid-apocalypse-how-big-can-humanity-survive
Does gold “burn”? Not in the common sense, but it can both melt and vaporise (at about 1000 C and 3000 C respectively). It can also form stable oxides, and is probably more likely to do so when condensing from a liquid or vapour state mixed with air. So the answer is twofold: A lot of the gold would melt vaporise before precipitating as very fine particles that are spread with the wind, while an amount of it would likely form oxides in the process. The result would be a bunch of gold and gold oxide dust spread over a vast area, probably taking years before all of it reaches the ground.