What would it feel like on the surface of a planet while it collides with another planet?

Let's say that something horrible has happened and a Mars-sized planet is knocked out of orbit and is hurtling towards an Earth-sized planet. How much time will they have? How will this affect the inhabited planet?

Obviously the impact itself means the end of life on that world, but this is happening on an astronomical time scale and they'll have years before the actual impact.

My base question is this: What will the target planet (Especially its inhabitants) experience as the other planet draws nearer?

Assumptions:

• The impacting planet orbited the star at roughly the same speed as the other planet
• Something (asteroid strike?) has caused the orbit of the impacting planet to degrade such that it is spiraling in towards the star
• The angle of impact will be acute, as one planet effectively "merges" into the other planet's spot
• Speed of impact will be slow (I don't know what qualifies as "slow" in astronomical terms, feel free to extrapolate as needed)

posted about 8 years ago

Danny Reagan‭

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