[1] - https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2024/12/vera-rub...
"Simulations of the LSST observing cadence and 40,000 LEO satellites show that about 10% of all LSST images would contain at least one satellite trail"
"Satellites and debris dimmer than 6th to 7th visual magnitude still cause streaks and glints, but typically leave the rest of the pixels scientifically usable."
The surface of the Earth is big. If you place 40,000 car sized objects on it in random places, you’d not be able to see then from low earth orbit.
That’s approximately how irrelevant they are in the sky.
Especially[0] if we can blast the thing out of the sky, one of these days ..
Why stop at 200 years? It's also 300 years and 400 years, or 4 billion years :P
<https://www.etymonline.com/word/asteroid>.
There not having been a need for it before.
Edit: This was in fact visible - there is at least one video out there from much further from the likely impact in Cape Cod Bay
Afaik it's not unusual for truck-sized objects to woosh past Earth, detected only after their pass. Or just days before. Weeks if lucky. Not a timespan in which one could mount a divert-mission.
Possibly this applies to bigger objects too? Some objects have a very dark surface & are very hard to detect in any case.
