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Originally Posted by sir_pudding
1.6 billion HP based on mass
DR 25 million based on the 50mile average thickness of the crust and using the low end DR for stone (since the crust is mostly basalt).
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If you do this much damage, you will have broken the planet into pieces - probably several large chunks plus multiple smaller bits. However, while you may have smashed it up pretty good, you will not have destroyed it
as a planet. The reason is because those chunks and bits are still attracted together by their mutual gravity and will quickly coalesce into one large lump of metal and rock once again (granted, it will be molten rock even at the surface). To make it into something that is no longer a planet, you have to deliver enough energy to overcome the gravitational binding energy of the planet. This requires about 2.4 x 10^32 Joules, or the energy equivalent of the complete annihilation of about 3 trillion tons of antimatter with an equal amount of matter. Using the formula for damage from explosives, this means it will take something like a 6d x 2.2 x 10^13 explosion to blast the earth into bits that will not fall back together and coalesce into a planet once again. You thus need on the order of 40 trillion points of damage to truely destroy a planet.
Of course, merely wiping out all life on the planet is much, much easier. Melting the entire crust into molten magma takes far less damage.
Luke