Physics and Star Wars
To estimate the effects of the second Death Star, Minton looks into its mass. According to estimated data from some students of Lehigh University, the steel mass needed for building one would be around 770 kilograms times the mass cubed in weight. This would give the Death Star of about ten to the power of nineteen kilograms in mass. Using this data, Minton produces equations that lead him to conclude the fragments would hit the moons surface so hard causing craters almost four times the size of the Chicxulub crater in Mexico. This impact would cause a planetary firestorm and vaporize all lifeforms on the moon.
Hypervelocity Asteroid Intercept Vehicle
In 2013, a meteor about 30 meters in diameter and weighing about 13,000 metric tons had an impact event over Russia. Once in Earth's lower atmosphere it burned up and then exploded. NASA expected the meteor to burn up without any issues, but was not the case. This relatively small meteor damaged over 7200 buildings and injured over 1400 people. The Chelyabinsk meteor brought renewed attention towards asteroid defense and the remains of the meteor gave scientists more data on asteroids.