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Knowing if it will hit is a lot easier than knowing where.

Knowing where, will depend on the angle of impact - if came basically straight in (tangent to the surface) we can be pretty accurate, but the more shallow the angle the harder it will be.

With a shallow angle, we'll probably be able to tell the latitude pretty well, but not the longitude.



Nitpick: normal to the surface.


Oops! Yes, I meant to say perpendicular (or normal).


It must be easy to determine which face of the earth it strikes though...?


The earth rotates on its axis, So knowing the exact point it hits would depend on the exact time it hits. Presumably that's why the other commenter said knowing latitude would be easier than knowing longitude.




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