NASA's DART mission showed that if we detect a dangerous asteroid headed toward Earth, knocking it off course with a spacecraft is a potential option.
  • spittingimage@lemmy.world
    2·
    16 days ago

    If it’s that big I think we’ve got a pretty good chance of seeing it coming. But at any given time we’re only looking at a fraction of the sky.

    • threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1·
      16 days ago

      But at any given time we’re only looking at a fraction of the sky.

      True, but aren’t there telescopes like WISE (and the upcoming NEO Surveyor) whose whole purpose is to continually and repeatedly scan the sky for objects? It seems rather unlikely that we would have repeatedly missed a moon-sized object.