reedef

reedef t1_jdp1shr wrote

So I started researching and Wikipedia actually has a calculation on this and for an asteroid with hyperbolic excess velocity of 12.5 km/s the effective increase of the cross sectional impact area is 80%. Not x10 or anything but not insignificant either.

The impact is going to be larger than that for objects that approach the earth from nearby orbits.

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reedef t1_jdo52pd wrote

You also have to account for the fact that the earth itself attracts asteroids even if they're not heading 100% towards the earth, though I'm not sure how large of an effect that is at interplanetary speeds

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