2 ms·

If it were to come right for us, what do we have today to stop it (if at all) ?

• atrus 1y ago
  If we're just talking about interstellar objects, and assuming a decent lead time (not oh hey it's going to hit in 3 days), it's probably easier to prevent it from hitting us since it's most likely just passing through. You'd only need to give it a small enough nudge to have it miss a smidge. That's something we're more than capable now of doing, and have done.
  • coolspot 1y ago
    > That's something we're more than capable now of doing, and have done. You’re very optimistic about our ability to divert 22km-diameter object moving at 70km/s . DART smashed 680kg payload into a 780m-diameter Didymos changing its orbit.
  • gora_mohanty 1y ago
    We would need to detect it in time, have an interceptor fast enough to rendezvous with it, and also with enough payload to nudge it off course. Seems quite difficult with current technology
• russdill 1y ago
  If this object were coming straight for Earth there would be pretty much nothing we could do to avoid a collision. Luckily the chances of such a collision are enormously small. We are fortunately bringing more resources on line to find such objects sooner.