2 ms·
> 900 times that of the gravitational binding energy of the moonlet Wait, seriously? Maybe I should have paid more attention to the relative scale of these thi
by andrewflnr 4y ago
> 900 times that of the gravitational binding energy of the moonlet
Wait, seriously? Maybe I should have paid more attention to the relative scale of these things. That makes it sound like the most reasonable expected outcome is total obliteration.
- wolfram74 4y agoThe mission was approved in 2015, which means it was designed before then, we've learned a good chunk about how smaller asteroids bind together since then, the hyabusa 2 and osiris rex missions were both after 2019, so it wasn't wholely unreasonable that some other kind of internal binding mechanism might be at play besides the piddling role gravity plays at these scales.