And if we do see it well in advance, with present technology it's probably easier and more effective to evacuate the city that is going to get hit than it would be to try to mount some sort of last second interception/deflection mission.Even if we had the means to deal with something that size, just seeing it coming before it's too late is another thing all together.
You are probably over-estimating our capacity to pinpoint the impact.And if we do see it well in advance
Thought this was like debunked or thought to be an earth based signal bouncing off debris.Heard about this for the first time today. Pretty interesting stuff.
Wow! signal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The HST's mirror is 2.4m, so how is a 2m space telescope 40 years later going to do anything? Where does the 300 times greater FOV come from?
FOV is a function of focal length, not primary mirror diameter. Mirror diameter directly affects sensitivity, bigger mirrors gather more light. Coupled with larger focal plane sensors you can get better spatial resolution with a larger mirror, but the FOV will still be set by the focal length.The HST's mirror is 2.4m, so how is a 2m space telescope 40 years later going to do anything? Where does the 300 times greater FOV come from?
JWST is like 6.5m and launches in 1.5 years.
Wouldn't you want a narrow FOV for a space telescope thats supposed to observe far-away things?FOV is a function of focal length, not primary mirror diameter. Mirror diameter directly affects sensitivity, bigger mirrors gather more light. Coupled with larger focal plane sensors you can get better spatial resolution with a larger mirror, but the FOV will still be set by the focal length.
Relate it to standard DSLR camera lenses. A bigger mirror is analogous to a bigger lens, faster F-stop, finer depth of field. Nothing to do really with FOV, which is set by focal length. 10mm is a short focal length associated with wide FOV. 100+mm is telephoto, narrow FOV.