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<blockquote data-quote="freyar" data-source="post: 7487480" data-attributes="member: 40227">I haven't bothered with the numbers, since I think those have probably been covered.&nbsp; But assuming a &quot;glancing blow&quot; scenario, hitting the asteroid perpendicularly is the way to go.&nbsp; What really matters is change in momentum, not really energy, though your heroine will need a lot of energy to have enough momentum to transfer to the rock.I did want to address this point.&nbsp; Over the timescales we're talking about (say an hour, even up to a day or two), the earth is moving at close to a constant velocity.&nbsp; So it is actually perfectly fine and even easier to think about everything from the earth's point of view (ie, &quot;rest frame of the earth&quot;), where the earth is sitting still and the asteroid is coming straight at it.&nbsp; This is in fact the way the characters in the story, coming from earth, would think about it.&nbsp; There's no need to worry about the earth's orbit.&nbsp; Think about the asteroid like a bullet shot at a stationary earth all you like.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="freyar, post: 7487480, member: 40227"] I haven't bothered with the numbers, since I think those have probably been covered. But assuming a "glancing blow" scenario, hitting the asteroid perpendicularly is the way to go. What really matters is change in momentum, not really energy, though your heroine will need a lot of energy to have enough momentum to transfer to the rock. I did want to address this point. Over the timescales we're talking about (say an hour, even up to a day or two), the earth is moving at close to a constant velocity. So it is actually perfectly fine and even easier to think about everything from the earth's point of view (ie, "rest frame of the earth"), where the earth is sitting still and the asteroid is coming straight at it. This is in fact the way the characters in the story, coming from earth, would think about it. There's no need to worry about the earth's orbit. Think about the asteroid like a bullet shot at a stationary earth all you like. [/QUOTE]

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