"Is there any current research in cryogenics or suspended animation for long-term space travel?"
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Question
I am curious about what effect an asteroid impact, like the one that killed the dinosaurs, would have on the orbit of the earth.
Answer: Such an impact, by an asteroid 10-15 km across, would have no measurable effect on the Earth's orbit. Part of what makes the story of impacts and extinctions so interesting is that an impact that is "small" on a geophysical or astronomical scale, unable to alter the orbit or spin or magnetic field of the planet, can still generate an environmental catastrophe and mass extinction. David Morrison
NAI Senior Scientist
March 15, 2006
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