[Lurker]

“the smaller space rocks that were dislodged when the kinetic impactor struck the natural satellite achieved three times the momentum of the spacecraft that created them.”

Isaac Newton would have something to say about that.

L

[BenLurkin]

I’m still baffled how light has momentum when it doesn’t have mass.

[ConservativeMind]

There may be stored energy in some space rocks we don’t yet understand.

[norwaypinesavage]

Newton has already said something about that, the law of conservation of momentum. It says that the TOTAL momentum after such a collision is equal to the total momentum before the collision. The boulder had momentum before the collision and that must also be considered along with its momentum as it was changed by the collision.