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> Like comets, if one hit us it would end life on the planet. 'Oumuamua is more of a 'city-killer' risk at its size than a comet such as Halley's, which would
by detritus 6y ago
> Like comets, if one hit us it would end life on the planet.
'Oumuamua is more of a 'city-killer' risk at its size than a comet such as Halley's, which would be more of the sort of range of size that could seriously screw up our day.
- willis936 6y agoTrue, Oumuamua itself would not have done Earth changing damage even in the worst case collision, but where there is one we have to ask “are there others?” and “how big are they?” We have a pretty good idea of the asteroids and comets in stable orbits around the sun. We know with certainty we’re not going to be hit with a planet killer asteroid in the next hundred years because we track all of them.
- AnimalMuppet 6y agoWe track all of them that we know of. And we think that we know most of them. I'm not sure that we know all of them; I'm not sure that the trackers think that, either.
- willis936 6y agoActually, we do. Asteroids large enough to be considered planet-killers are the easiest ones to spot. https://youtu.be/4Wrc4fHSCpw https://youtu.be/4Wrc4fHSCpw