Tobias_Atwood t1_irxv37q wrote on October 11, 2022 at 9:04 PM

Reply to comment by scudobuio in Nasa's Dart spacecraft 'changed path of asteroid' by scudobuio

Space is so vast (even just within our own "cosmic neighborhood") that accidentally knocking a large rock directly into a collision course with Earth would take (pardon me for this) astronomically bad luck.

The only way I could see us doomsday'ing ourselves this way was if we were too stupid about towing a massive asteroid with lots of metals into orbit around Earth so it would be easier to mine. At least then we were actually trying to get it to go in the direction of Earth.

scudobuio OP t1_irxvaqs wrote on October 11, 2022 at 9:06 PM

That sounds like the plot of a satirical movie.

Tobias_Atwood t1_irxwen9 wrote on October 11, 2022 at 9:13 PM

It's actually a one note research anomaly in the space civ game Stellaris.

An unknown alien civilization from thousands of years in the past accidentally wiped itself out by trying to tow a massive asteroid into orbit around their planet where it could be mined for it's rich metal content.

Except they were way off about their calculations and sent it towards the planet too fast. They couldn't stop it in time and it impacted so hard it wiped all life off the planet.

But you get a +3 alloy bonus when you put a mining station over the planet because of it, so that's good for you at least.

scudobuio OP t1_irxwp2n wrote on October 11, 2022 at 9:15 PM

Nice. Mine was a weak reference to Don’t Look Up, in case you’re uninterested in pap.

Tobias_Atwood t1_irxxiqy wrote on October 11, 2022 at 9:21 PM

Hadn't had the chance to watch that yet. Will get to it eventually.