So we sight asteroids a few hours or a couple of days before they go by. If we found that one large enough to do damage was going to impact, how could we have time to do anything with current technology?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34826596/ns/technology_and_science-space/ns/technology_and_science-space/
updated 8:50 p.m. ET, Wed., Jan. 13, 2010
A near-Earth object hurtled past us on Wednesday, just two days after its discovery was announced.
Orbital projections indicated that the object called 2010 AL30 flew by Earth at a distance of just 80,000 miles (130,000 kilometers). That's only one-third of the way from here to the moon.
If the object had been on a collision course with Earth, it wouldn't have done any damage anyway. But planetary scientists said the asteroid, or whatever it was, set a new standard: A 10-meter-wide (33-foot-wide) asteroid can be detected two days before it potentially hits Earth.
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"Probably 2010 AL30 is of natural origin. However, the possibility that it is man-made cannot be completely excluded," Khan said in an article on his blog. "If so, it might be the upper stage of a rocket used in an earlier planetary mission, possibly to Venus. The current orbit would have been acquired through a Venus swingby and other orbital perturbations."
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Andrea Boattini of the Catalina Sky Survey made the interesting point that 2010 AL30 is a great example of how much of a warning we'd have for an object of this size that's headed for Earth. After all, the discovery was announced only on Monday.
It is worth noting that even if 2010 AL30 did hit Earth, it would most likely explode high in the atmosphere (with the energy of a small nuclear bomb), posing little danger to anyone on the ground. Impacts of this size happen every year.
http://www.space.com/common/forums/viewtopic.php?t=22114
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