Asteroid Smashing

[Slim]

You'll have heard that NASA has smashed a probe into an asteroid as an experiment. Scott Manley has a very good video on this, including the probe imagery, here. What I didn't know is that the asteroid that was brutalised by NASA is actually a moon of an other asteroid.  The parent asteroid (Didymos) is only half a mile long and its moon, NASA's target (Dimorphos) is about 1/4 of that size.

[The Picnic Wasp]

Strange to think that the people who carried out this work of seemingly unfathomable genius are from the same species which steal old ladies' handbags and batter people for the colour of their skin or for the football team they support.

[Slim]

Just read that Dimorphos was 6.8 million miles from Earth when the NASA probe scored a bullseye.

It's about 800 metres long, so (by my maths) that's something like hitting a gnat with an air pellet at a range of 85 miles. I've assumed a gnat to be roughly 2mm in length for the purposes of this comparison.

That said I don't know if the probe was steered, or directed by radar or whatever. But even so - pretty impressive.

[The Picnic Wasp]

I think the air gun pellet would need to be something like 0.02mm for your rough comparison. Mind boggling stuff. A direct hit on a 2mm target with a microscopic bullet from 85 miles away. Again, why are we having such difficulties on Earth when these are our capabilities? Perhaps we need to "pass a noble law" so that only individuals with a qualifying high IQ level can gain power.

[Nickslikk2112]

I think the air gun pellet would need to be something like 0.02mm for your rough comparison. Mind boggling stuff. A direct hit on a 2mm target with a microscopic bullet from 85 miles away. Again, why are we having such difficulties on Earth when these are our capabilities? Perhaps we need to "pass a noble law" so that only individuals with a qualifying high IQ level can gain power.

IQ SchmIQ. I'm in the top 25 for IQ and believe me you wouldn't want me in charge 

Humans aren't social animals, they're tribal ones. They'll work hard on sending things to hit space rocks to show how good their tribe are, whilst smashing seven shades of shit out of that lot next door. Just sayin'...

[The Picnic Wasp]

Yeah ok, but at least a direct hit would be quicker. However, there exists the possibility in this case of chest beating, that an end result might be that all the tribes are saved from extinction.

[Slim]

IQ SchmIQ. I'm in the top 25 for IQ and believe me you wouldn't want me in charge 

That's impressive. I think I'm probably only in the top 150. There could well be 149 other people roughly as intelligent as myself in the world.

[The Picnic Wasp]

So the IQ position thing is a bit like being vegan then? 😂

[pxr5]

IQ SchmIQ. I'm in the top 25 for IQ and believe me you wouldn't want me in charge 

That's impressive. I think I'm probably only in the top 150. There could well be 149 other people roughly as intelligent as myself in the world.

I think he means top 25 on this site 

[Nickslikk2112]

IQ SchmIQ. I'm in the top 25 for IQ and believe me you wouldn't want me in charge 

That's impressive. I think I'm probably only in the top 150. There could well be 149 other people roughly as intelligent as myself in the world.

I did think I was setting an IQ test for Rush fans, I had it in my head that there was something surrounding a latter day Rush album where a typewriter key had not been shifted and there was a "7" instead of an "&"

I must have dreamed it as I can't find sight nor sound of it now. Ho-hum.