Can we save our earth from a moonsized asteroid ?

Answer 1

There are no moon-sized asteroids. The entire asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter amounts to 4% of the Moon's mass and the largest one, 1 Ceres, accounts by itself for 32% of the mass of the asteroid belt. About 1,28% of the mass of the Moon.

This whole subject is bedevilled by sloppy tabloid journalism.

The killer asteroid that is going to wipe out all life on Earth is always hurtling straight towards us, never has a name, is as big as the Moon, and the whole story is exaggerated beyond credibility, just to worry people to sell newspapers.

The imagery is straight out of Science Fiction, pure unmitigated geocentrism. If it was heading straight for us, where we are now, we would be 186 million miles away in six months time and it would miss us by that kind of margin (or have killer asteroids suddenly developed torpedo-style homing devices as of late?)

So we need to think more critically about asteroid deflection strategies that deal with asteroid of 320 metres (like Apophis) up to 1-2 kilometrtes (sufficiently large to pose an extinction event possibility), not waste time on lurid sensationalist fantasies about objects that simply do not exist in our Solar System.

Answer 2

A moon-sized object is beyond any human power to control. Even a small (but devastating) 10km asteroid is beyond our capability to evade.

We could not nuke it. Firstly, such an action would not destroy it, merely scatter fragments from its surface that will rain down over a wider area. It will also make them highly radioactive, and that's no smart move.

We don't even have the power to deliver such devices to the asteroid. The only rocket we had that could escape the Earth's gravitational pull (and not just get to orbit) was the Saturn V rocket that put man on the moon all those years ago.

While the blueprints for the rocket have not been lost (as popularly believed), we simply have neither the vendors that can supply the 1960s parts required to construct one, nor the infrastructure to launch one. The launch pads have all be converted to Space Shuttle use. We can neither re-create the Saturn V nor develop a modern rocket in time to save Earth, and as I have said, it would be futile anyway.

A moon-sized object, far from being an asteroid would be large enough to be considered a planet, and we would spot it years in advance, but be powerless to stop it once we realised to was set on a collision course. Such a rogue planet is almost impossible anyway.

It was a Mars-sized object that crashed into the still-forming Earth that blew enough material into orbit to form the moon, and may we have been responsible for Earth's plate tectonics. If the moon or similar were to collide with the Earth today it would most likely obliterate the entire planet.

Answer 3

No, our current technology could not save Earth from a Moon-sized space object, which by the way are extremely rare. Even if a small asteroid was coming our way it would be very hard to stop it. Nuking it might just break it apart and send 1000s of small pieces coming towards Earth rather than one large one. However, the chances of any asteroid hitting us in our lifetime or even the next 500 years is extremely slim.

Answer 4

That would be a huge, huge problem.

The best ideas for deflecting an asteroid are 1) bombing it and 2) hovering a spacecraft nearby and letting the gravity of the spacecraft change its course very slightly. Either one are based on the idea that you see the asteroid years in advance, and that the tiny deflection caused by either action would be enough to change where the asteroid would be many years in the future. Neither one would make much of a change in the course of an asteroid the size of our moon.

Fortunately, such asteroids are very unlikely to exist. We would have found it by now if it did exist.

Answer 5

Imagine that the moon were said asteroid and calculate what effects our current technology could bring to bear on it. What effect would the combined force of all nuclear weapons have on the position of the moon, for example. The force from the impact of a large asteroid or comet can exceed the force of all our nuclear weapons. The moon and earth have experienceed such large impact events in the past, yet their motions have been little effected.

Answer 6

I Agree =) potential Saving Lightbulbs For A start up.. That New Persil or Ariel Stuff That Saves potential Too =) Get An Eco friendly homestead.. Have photograph voltaic Panels.. This Ting the place Your Water you utilize In Thi bathe Is saved And Used To Flush Your rest room - homestead windows That shop warmth so which you Dont could desire to apply The Heating As plenty.. Oh and turn All Plugs Off !

Answer 7

Why worry about something Moon sized? The one that whacked the dinosaurs some 65 million years ago was only a few miles in diameter. And someting that size we just --might-- be able to divert using current technology.

Doug

Answer 8

a moon sized aseroid is not an asteroid, it's a small planet. No way unless we discover it years in advance

Answer 9

No, absolutely not. The moon is 1/6 the size of earth. We'd need to find a way to deflect or destroy something that big, and there's just no way.

Answer 10

There are no Moon-sized asteroids in our solar system.