Interstellar Object Travelling Through Solar System: 1I/2017 U1 "Oumuamua"

[Christopher]

^I knew I should've said "is proportional to" instead of "is"...

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

^I knew I should've said "is proportional to" instead of "is"...

Yes, I couldn't resist it. Sorry.

 

[Ronald Held]

Intercept missions could be fine with current tech, if the object was discovered early enough pre perihelion.

 

[Christopher]

Yes, I couldn't resist it. Sorry.

No, you were absolutely right. I should've been more careful. The goal was to provide information to others, after all.

 

[matthunter]

So something that's 1/100th as massive will have the same impact if it's 10 times as fast.

This was your GF's way of letting you down gently, dude.

 

[SPCTRE]

Actually, kinetic energy is 1/2 times mass times velocity squared, v^2, provided v << c, where c is the speed of light, or (gamma - 1) times rest mass times c^2 as v approaches c, where the Lorentz factor gamma = 1/sqrt(1 - (v/c)^2). But, yes, the factor of 1/2 cancels out in your comparison so you're correct for non-relativistic velocities.