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CardNGold t1_irxkls4 wrote

What if by altering the trajectory we have unknowingly doomed another civilization?

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sixtyeightwest t1_irxovtr wrote

Then we just accidentally fired the first asteroid in a future war of the worlds. So long and thanks for all the fish.

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whatshamilton t1_irxt28g wrote

The moment it happened I wondered only half-jokingly if this was the Shot Heard Around The Universe, the moment when extraterrestrials say “we’ll those earthlings have finally entered the universal race. Let’s go, girls.”

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Temporary_Kangaroo_3 t1_irxlk17 wrote

civilizations either end up like us, where we are technologically advanced and can defend against planet killers like this, but inevitably suck up all our planets resources and kill ourselves.

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Or, they're a peaceful, harmonious civilization where they live in symbiosis with their own planet, but the planet killing asteroid eventually dooms them.

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Replop t1_is020fw wrote

You know of other civilizations in our solar system ?

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CardNGold t1_is1dewn wrote

Do you know for certain there are not?

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Replop t1_is2gisa wrote

No, but as we didn't detect anything for now, they are either ....

  • Absent

  • Advanced enough to hide : They could probably handle another rock hitting their world.

  • Primitive, enough they probably wouldn't have built a civilization yet. ( bacterial colonies in old lava tubes on Mars, random lifeforms in the oceans of Europa, under the ice surface ? )

Who knows ?

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kotoandjuri t1_irzhojw wrote

As long as we don't cover it in Martian stealth composites, they'll be able to detect the asteroid.

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[deleted] t1_is0xdzb wrote

I just imagined it coming back next and hitting us cuz we nudged it into collision 😂

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Dewnami t1_irz6ecn wrote

You know this has always bothered me with deflecting asteroids. We are altering the destiny of the universe. Our deflection could very well be the demise of another civilization.

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JackD4wkins t1_irzjjqd wrote

This asteroid is locked in orbit around our sun.... it will literally never leave our solar system, and therefore can never threaten a single living thing ever. Hope you can finally stop worrying about this issue now

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Bensemus t1_is7q8kl wrote

That's only because you don't understand it at all. Look into the mission properly.

DART smashed into a small asteroid that is orbiting a larger one which is orbiting the Sun. The smaller asteroid's orbit was shrunk from ~12h to ~11.5h. It's still gravitationally bound to the larger asteroid which is still gravitationally bound to the Sun. Nothing was really changed. There was never any danger in drastically altering this asteroids orbit and put it on a collision course with Earth.

Saying we altered the destiny of the universe is beyond egotistical.

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