Asteroid/tracking question

[MaxwellsDemon]

I mentioned on the "what did you do today" thread that I spotted an asteroid on collision course with Kerbin. I knocked together some asteroid-redirect thrusters, determined how to intercept the asteroid, and sent the interceptors on their way-- primary mission, redirect asteroid to avoid an impact, secondary mission lasso it and bring it into a convenient orbit. Kind of exciting, really.

But I wondered-- I only recently figured out how to track asteroids. Out of curiosity, would it still have 'spawned' as an object on a collision course if I hadn't tracked it? (Presumably, it would hit somewhere far away from KSC and I might hear an unexplained "boom" or something and that would be it?) Or, by tracking it, did I in essence trigger the current situation? Not sure how big a coincidence it is that the second asteroid I track just happens to be on a collision course...

Edited October 6, 2015 by MaxwellsDemon

[mattssheep4]

Pretty sure the game doesn't keep track of them for that long unless you do decide to track it. I've gotten several asteroids, about half have been on a collision course, the rest were just "too close for comfort" at between 100-1000 km Pe, but as far as I'm aware, if you don't track it, it won't hit Kerbin.

[tomf]

The game does despawn untracked asteroids after a while and replace them with new ones which I think will get rid of some kerbin colliding ones. Any asteroid that has a trajectory that collides with kerbin, tracked or untracked will be deleted as it crosses the 23km boundry in Kerbin's atmosphere just like any other vessel that isn't in physics range of the current focussed vessel.

[MaxwellsDemon]

So, basically, if I ignore asteroids, they'll go away?

[Claw]

So, basically, if I ignore asteroids, they'll go away?

Yep, pretty much.

[amorymeltzer]

So, basically, if I ignore asteroids, they'll go away?

With a mindset like that, you could run for office!