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originally posted by: bobs_uruncle
a reply to: Malak777
I wonder if it was a good idea to whack a 1km asteroid that has a year of 474 days and sort of crosses our path?
originally posted by: schuyler
originally posted by: bobs_uruncle
a reply to: Malak777
I wonder if it was a good idea to whack a 1km asteroid that has a year of 474 days and sort of crosses our path?
It was more of a love pat. The idea was to stir up some dust from a very small explosion so they could capture the dust and return it to Earth. It's not like they nuked it into bite size pieces.
originally posted by: bobs_uruncle
originally posted by: schuyler
originally posted by: bobs_uruncle
a reply to: Malak777
I wonder if it was a good idea to whack a 1km asteroid that has a year of 474 days and sort of crosses our path?
It was more of a love pat. The idea was to stir up some dust from a very small explosion so they could capture the dust and return it to Earth. It's not like they nuked it into bite size pieces.
I seem to remember it was a 2kg charge. I realize that the reaction would be extremely small considering the asteroid is around a km in diameter. However, small changes in trajectory over time might mean at some point every 474 days, its path has changed sufficiently to be captured by our gravity well. That could be problematic as a 1km object travelling in excess of 18000 mph would be capable of doing serious damage.
That could be problematic as a 1km object travelling in excess of 18000 mph would be capable of doing serious damage.
originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: bobs_uruncle
That could be problematic as a 1km object travelling in excess of 18000 mph would be capable of doing serious damage.
Yeah. That's a lot of inertia.
It would also be very difficult to change its orbit as the result of a small explosion on its surface.
originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: InTheLight
Care to calculate the resultant vector?
originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: InTheLight
Care to calculate the resultant vector?
originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: InTheLight
Sorry, it's the weekend.
Cocktail napkin says, "no worries."