Reply #33: Nope. WAY too big for that.

[benburch]

A nuke impacting on the surface would take off a few meters of it, but even if we could turn it into gravel, are we sure that a flying gavel pit would damage us less than a solid rock? I know that people better acquainted with the dynamics of this than I am are not certain that a flying gravel pit wouldn't actually be WORSE. And, as the debris will disperse somewhat, the cross section of impact would be larger, and the chance of at least some of the material will hit earth expands tremendously!

We need to do a few things. In order;

1. Put a beacon on it so we can track it to a millimeter.

2. Use that information to learn for certain if it will hit.

3. If it will not hit, fine.

4. If it will hit, we need to build a nuclear powered ion rocket motor, land it on the rock, and gently push it into an orbit that will miss us. If we get the motor on the rock early, the amount of change we need to make in its velocity to cause a miss is MUCH smaller than if we start pushing much later.

We have 25 years.