.
If it gets within one fourth of its radius it starts to fall apart due to gravitation. If it is a direct hit, dirt and water will be drawn up and the collision will take place through hundreds of miles of mud and compressed air. It is quite a project to predict what would happen, even in a general sense.
It looks as if a body collided with Mars and plowed all the way through the planet to produce the Tharsis Bulge, the one they say is a volcano but shows no evidence of volcanic activity other than Olympus Mons sticking up.
Well yes, that's a possibility Rosie, but not a likely one. It's almost certainly happened once before, though the solar system was a much busier place back then.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant-impact_hypothesis
A body wouldn't need to be anywhere near as large as that to cause us severe problems. Anything much larger than a kiliometer is going to be a problem for global agriculture and possibly water provision. Humanity would survive, but it wouldn't be pleasant. As the size increases, so does the scale of the problem.
It makes me inordinately pleased to know that, if we can spot it early enough, the answer to the problem might be paint. :)
Really JV? So it wouldn't have to hit the earth at all. It just would have to get close enough and
stay to cause the earth to fall apart? Whoa! That gives it a lot of wiggle room doesn't it? Thank you for your thoughtful and helpful answer and Happy Saturday to thee! :)
The Yarkovsky Effect? I just read the link you so kindly provided to us. Geez MrWitch that is surely the stuff of science fiction!. Spray paint? Any particular color? If we get to choose I choose gold or silver with metal flakes. Sounds like something that McGiver (sp?) would come up with. There was an American TV series years ago wherein the lead guy was always getting out of danger
with a clothes hanger or paper clip or masking tape or a rubber band. This seems like that to me. Thank you for your reply and Happy Saturday! :)
I'd be the first to admit that we would need to spot any newcomer fairly early - perhaps on a previous pass.
As to colour, I seem to remember that lighter is better, so the most likely choice would be white. I rather like the idea of painting something to save the world. It has an absurdity that appeals far more than firing missiles at things. :)
Why not write a scifi story about it? The best ones are based on truth and possibilities . You could call it "How Spraypaint Saved the Earth". I mean that title is gonna pique curiosity at the very least! And if lighter is better then why not silver with metalflakes? Or iridescent...or have it look like the Aurora Borealis? Oh my....bad idea. That would be much too beautiful to destroy. But I digress. I'm not a fan of firing of things that go BOOM either. They are always inelegant, noisy and leave behind a trail of unpleasantness .:)
