The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #131995 Message #2983458
Posted By: Slag
09-Sep-10 - 05:41 PM
Thread Name: BS: Asteroids: Missed us by THAT much!
Subject: RE: BS: Asteroids: Missed us by THAT much!
Uh, is that kinda like smoking a Lox? Or a Lox and beagle? aside...
There are trajectories and Earth-Sun alignments that might have a space rock coming from the direction of the Sun to which we would be visually blind for a perod of time but not long enough that we would somehow not see them until they were upon us. If one were coming directly from the Sun's direction it would also be climbing out of the Sun's gravity well and losing speed. The maximum in-coming speed of any object which orginates in the solar system is aobut forty miles a second-plenty fast- but climbing up from the Sun would be much slower giving more time for detection and counter-measures.
As for one breaking up because of tidal forces, being better? You're talking shotgun versus rifle bullet! Impact would still be a high risk.