We're overdue for a planet killer. The descendents of the few survivors will wonder about us like we wonder about the Atlassian.
They will not wonder at all. Either you are talking 20k years in the future and there is no evidence of us aside from microplastics and the irradiated soil layers, or you are talking 2k years in the future and everyone is still running around with kalashnikovs. Where do the kalashnikovs come from, grug asks? From the Kalashnikov factory to the east, moron, responds trug.
>>16453411Modern technology could deflect an asteroid and detection would be trivial. This is no longer a meaningful threat. It wouldn’t even need to be an international project, the US could do it alone (maybe Russia or China too).
>>16453411just shoot a nuke at it
>>16454546one nuke might just make a shotgun blast of somewhat smaller asteroids. a really lot of nukes all going off in front of it in quick succession would probably do the job.
>>16454558>>16454546you dont even need to do this if you catch it early enough.In fact in all cases where we catch it early its almost comically easy. Even a close flyby of a reasonably massed probe could shunt the encounter with earth far enough away for a near miss instead of an impact.To make sure you just park the probe next to the asteroid and tug it off course using gravity.If we dont catch it early then we're fucked because we might not have time to do anything meaningful.
>>16454559What range would we need to detect it? I expect past mars for us with current tech to be able to turnaround a rocket and probe to intercept.
>>16453411The Deep Impact mission was, in part, a proof of concept for asteroid-redirecting technology. If an asteroid was detected heading for Earth, we would have it under control.
>>16453411>overdueKek.>>16453680>no evidence of us aside from microplastics and the irradiated soil layersWhat are landfills, Ken?>>16454485>could deflect an asteroid >>16454546>>16454559>catch it early>park the probeI miss Bruce Willis too, but seriously guys.
>>16453680>no evidenceGuys! The Maastrichtian stage fossil record was COMPLETELY DESTROYED by Chicxulub asteriod!
>>16453411Chicxulub was 66 million years ago, and the previous comparable asteroid impact before Chicxulub is thought to have been roughly 250 million years before that.By this logic, no we're not overdue for one
