Chuck Hards wrote:
This rock is 320 (m)eters in diameter, right, not (m)iles? Wouldn't it be just as easy (technically) to vaporize it completely than deflect it with certainty?
Since the license plate on my car reads METRIC I'll pipe up and assure you that it does indeed mean meters. I was just reading an article on this in the Planetary Society's newsletter. Basically they said the current thinking is to put a transponder on it and use that to get very accurate astrometry. Then, if that lead them to believe an impact was going to happen they'd look into landing a small ion thruster on its surface. They figure that the thruster's small (~2 kg) thrust applied over many years would move the rock just far enough to not be a hazzard. And, BTW, it's not the 2029 pass that has them worried. Everyone seems to think it will be close (just inside the 40,000 km geostationary orbit) and at third magnitude, bright enough to be seen with the naked eye, but it will not hit us. However, that close pass could alter its orbit such that a few years later it could hit us. Patrick