What can you do when asteroids are about to shoot the Earth , and Bruce Willis is nowhere to be find ? Apparently , the answer may involve atomic explosions in space to try and speed it up .
The strange suggestion add up from David Dearborn , from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California . He simulate a practical asteroid as part of an investigation into how best to dodge a mammoth meteor - like slug … and then added a atomic blast , just to see what would come about , according to New Scientist :
Thirty years before the asteroid was set to collide with Earth , a nuclear blast , equivalent to 100 kilotonnes of TNT , was go down off 250 metres behind it . The nudge from the explosion increased its velocity by 6.5 millimetres per secondly , a slight change but enough for it to leave out us .
The technique also reduced the danger of a break - up – just 1 per centime of the asteroid ’s textile was free by the blast , and of that only about 1 part in a million remained on a collision row with Earth . Dearborn add up that the technology for this method acting is already established , unlike for the use of a expectant object to shove the asteroid onto a different itinerary – the “ kinetic impactor ” strategy . “ Should an exigency arise , we should bang that [ the technology ] is available , and we should have some idea of how to in good order utilize it , ” he says .
Dearborn ’s enquiry also suggest that just blowing the whole asteroid up was also an option , although Derek Richardson of the University of Maryland in College Park disagrees for the good reason – You ca n’t be sure that you ’re definitely going to be capable to destruct the asteroid :
It may be that you just blow out out a big fix on the surface .
After all , the last thing you want is to piss off the thing that ’s about to put down you .
How to save the human beings from an asteroid impact[New Scientist ]
asteroidsScience
Daily Newsletter
Get the best technical school , skill , and culture intelligence in your inbox day by day .
News from the futurity , delivered to your present .
Please pick out your desired newssheet and present your email to upgrade your inbox .
You May Also Like
