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[Loud Whispers]

Unless you strike it high enough in the atmosphere, in which case, it results in lots of little fragments that burn up.

Also checked on this specific meteorite, the injuries were caused by the supersonic wave generated by the meteorite before it vaporized in the air.

Not really sure you can fire a missile at a supersonic wave and expect it to win.

[Loud Whispers]

You also fail to think of this:
A large meteor hits earth. Could be very, VERY problematic. As in, large extinction event problematic. The amount of dust et al kicked up could be huge.
A lot of smaller meteorites hit, and, due to the explosion, are slower (slightly) (I'm assuming the missile hits it head-on), less overall damage will be done. No HUEG crater, no craploads of dust sent into the atmosphere. Admittedly, the initial casualties may be worse, but the after effects would less severe.

But with present day tech, I think that meteor defence is still sci-fi, unless we find it far out.

An asteroid large enough to cause extinction being blown up will still cause extinction. Redirecting it from a collision course reduces the damage from extinction to nothing.

[10ebbor10]

Putin has called for an anti-meteor defense system.

Explode a meteorite and it just turns into many smaller meteorites. Not terribly helpful, makes things a tiny bit worse.

Unless you strike it high enough in the atmosphere, in which case, it results in lots of little fragments that burn up.

Anything small enough for that wouldn't be worth the cost of exploding it.

You also fail to think of this:
A large meteor hits earth. Could be very, VERY problematic. As in, large extinction event problematic. The amount of dust et al kicked up could be huge.
A lot of smaller meteorites hit, and, due to the explosion, are slower (slightly) (I'm assuming the missile hits it head-on), less overall damage will be done. No HUEG crater, no craploads of dust sent into the atmosphere. Admittedly, the initial casualties may be worse, but the after effects would less severe.

But with present day tech, I think that meteor defence is still sci-fi, unless we find it far out.

Just as a note, but even this meteorite weighted 10 tons. I dunno what you make your missiles of, but I doubt it'll manage to change the speed of a meteorite 1000 times this ones size.

Also, breaking up a meteroid that big would be a very bad thing. There are multiple parts to a meteorite that make it dangerous. While your plan would slightly decrease the craters size, it will spread out the thermic flash and impact damage. (In laymans terms, you just set fire to the athmosphere).
Not to mention that a missile big enough to scratch a meteroid must be nuclear.

So, meaning more initial damage and much more longterm damage to the environement.

[Zangi]

yeah you need a res 1 sensor and a fc with a tracking speed at least of 64000,
not considering the fact that you'll need some huge meson to pass the atmosphere and hit at range

Nah just a size one missile with really good engine tech.

We still don't have the engine tech to do so, I'd say its still lower then 'Conventional'. 
Our visual tracking system will have trouble keeping an eye on the other passing meteor.  (Radio says its speed is about the diameter of the moon per second.  3474 km/s or 2159 miles/s)

[Svarte Troner]

The Internet never fails. Found this during my rounds.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

New background.

[kaenneth]

As for a meteroid defense system. Doubt it'll work. These small meteors are nearly undectable, meaning that you'll need to set up rapid response systems all over the nation.

It's far from impossible, but probably not very necessary.

Threat title should be changed to Russia Strikes Meteor.

Well, it's kinda hard to hit 50 meters object(smaller as it's burns up), passing by at 54000 km/h.

It's not impossible. I used to bullseye womp elephants in my T-16 back home, they're not much bigger than 50 meters.

[10ebbor10]

Are we talking about the same 10 km diameter asteroid?

Because that's roughly 4*10¹² m³ of raw material, or 4*10¹⁵ kg ice(assuming pure ice, which is kinda your best hope, as it has a rather low density) All that frozen at a temperature close to 0 kelvin.

In order to vapourize that, you need to raise the temperature by roughly 300 degrees (Very rough, as I'm ignoring the pressure and the vaporization cooling.) This requires about  2.108 kJ/kg for 1 degree, or 2.5*10¹⁸ KJ of energy. Or more correctly 2.5 Zettajoule, which is about 5 times the Earth's annual energy consumption. A more practical comparison is that it requires about 2.5 Million Tsar Bombas. All assuming a 100% effeciency.

Still, as a last effort I'm pretty sure it will be used.

[Virex]

So does anyone know if these interplanetary ping-pong balls had anything to do with the big bowling ball that passed by the Earth recently?

[10ebbor10]

So does anyone know if these interplanetary ping-pong balls had anything to do with the big bowling ball that passed by the Earth recently?

According to the ESA, there's almost certainly no relationship, as they came from different directions.

[Scoops Novel]

Ninja'd! Damn planetoids trolling us with it's goddamn lazy asteroid absorbing rings.

[RedKing]

So does anyone know if these interplanetary ping-pong balls had anything to do with the big bowling ball that passed by the Earth recently?

According to the ESA, there's almost certainly no relationship, as they came from different directions.

That's how they get you....distract you in one direction with the near-miss asteroid, then while you're looking at that......BLAM! Meteor right in the old rooskies.

[Sir Finkus]

Here's a Russian blog I found that is compiling pictures and videos of the Meteor.

http://zyalt.livejournal.com/722930.html

Pretty spectacular stuff.

[sneakey pete]

Well, it's kinda hard to hit 50 meters object(smaller as it's burns up), passing by at 54000 km/h.

Would be moving significantly slower once it gets lower into the atmosphere. Intercepting it with todays technology would probably be possible, though you'd probably need 10 thousand stations to cover all of Russia, though once you actually get there i doubt that you'll actually be able to do anything to the rock.

[10ebbor10]

Well, it's kinda hard to hit 50 meters object(smaller as it's burns up), passing by at 54000 km/h.

Would be moving significantly slower once it gets lower into the atmosphere. Intercepting it with todays technology would probably be possible, though you'd probably need 10 thousand stations to cover all of Russia, though once you actually get there i doubt that you'll actually be able to do anything to the rock.

Projectiles of these size useually start to break up around 50 km altitude. By that point, intercepting is mostly useless and almost impossible.

You're going to need some very rapid response systems to get there in time.

[PanH]

You're going to need some very rapid response systems to get there in time.

Not necessarily. You need to be able to predict the meteors, that's all. If I can place a missile/nuke/whatever, in the path of the meteor, it will collide, whatever be the speed of both.
It's just meteor science