Comments
Doc891 t1_j4f6d1i wrote
i am absolutely ignorant when it comes to this stuff, but i do remember Ian Malcolm from Jurrassic Park, and I worry what the long reaching dangers of messing with the trajectory of giant rocks in the sky might be. Im assuming they are studying this, but how accurate can they be with regard to where these asteroids would go and what other things might be in their path along the way before hitting it?
pm_me_wet_kittehs t1_j4f6lii wrote
space is big. really big. you just wouldn't believe how hugely, mind bogglingly big it is.
tabfugnic t1_j4fz5w4 wrote
I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.
Upset-Let-4648 t1_j4fzqan wrote
Yeah but our solar system isn’t even a speck of dust compared to its size so our solar system can be described as mind bogglingly tiny on the scale of the universe.
DetlefKroeze t1_j4f7fqb wrote
In this case, they hit a moonlet of a bigger asteroïd. The orbit moonlet shifted a bit, but it never left the bigger asteroid. By studying exactly how much it shifted they teams behind this will learn more about how asteroids are affected by things like this.
Doc891 t1_j4f80rt wrote
i figured they would. So in however many years it takes to develop models, theyd be able to predict trajectories after the collision and see what its new path. Correct? But how far out would they be able to look and would they, or do they, have the projected paths of the entire milky way and all objects in it to predict the natural course of events after collision?
otter111a t1_j4g1qbj wrote
An asteroid whose orbit is no where near intersecting earth’s had another baby asteroid orbiting it. The impactor hit the little guy and made it slow down a skosh. It showed that an asteroid redirect is possible using an impactor.
So let’s say we found a planet killer out there. And you calculated an intercept 20 years from now. So you send up an impactor at the 10 year mark. It offsets the velocity of the asteroid by 1 km/hr. After another 10 years it’s 87,600 km off from where it would have been.
[deleted] t1_j4f4ell wrote
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