If we were going to terrafotm Venus, besides cooling her down and giving her a breathsble atmosphere and a magnetic field, I guess we'd need to speed up her incredibly slow rotation to give a 24h day.

I've read that this vould be theoretically achieved, if 2 or 3 asteroids about 350km across were fired at Venus in quick succession, presumably from the asteroid belt.

But it's difficult to see how such huge bodies could be moved.

However if a load of small asteroids with nuclear rocket engines all crashed together at 1 particular point, and at the right trajectories, could the resultant lump of rock and debris then speed towards Venus to do the job? A bit like snooker?

Cheerz

GIAN🙂XXX

(science age 12¾)

3 hours ago, Gian said:

But it's difficult to see how such huge bodies could be moved.

However if a load of small asteroids with nuclear rocket engines all crashed together at 1 particular point, and at the right trajectories, could the resultant lump of rock and debris then speed towards Venus to do the job? A bit like snooker?

Yes, it’s a matter of physics. A planet has a fairly substantial moment of inertia. changing the rotation rate by any appreciable amount isn’t going to happen.

On 5/31/2025 at 12:36 PM, Gian said:

but it's difficult to see how such huge bodies could be moved.

or survive being smashed into each other precisely enough to guarantee not breaking up