How to deflect asteroids and save the Earth
-
How to deflect asteroids and save the Earth
Thursday, April 16, 2009
You may want to thank David French in advance. Because, in the event that a comet or asteroid comes hurtling toward Earth, he may be the guy responsible for saving the entire planet.
French, a doctoral candidate in aerospace engineering at North Carolina State University, has determined a way to effectively divert asteroids and other threatening objects from impacting Earth by attaching a long tether and ballast to the incoming object. By attaching the ballast, French explains, "you change the object's center of mass, effectively changing the object's orbit and allowing it to pass by the Earth, rather than impacting it."
Sound far-fetched? NASA's Near Earth Object Program has identified more than 1,000 "potentially hazardous asteroids" and they are finding more all the time. "While none of these objects is currently projected to hit Earth in the near future, slight changes in the orbits of these bodies, which could be caused by the gravitational pull of other objects, push from the solar wind, or some other effect could cause an intersection," French explains.
So French, and NC State Associate Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Andre Mazzoleni, studied whether an asteroid-tether-ballast system could effectively alter the motion of an asteroid to ensure it missed hitting Earth. The answer? Yes.
"It's hard to imagine the scale of both the problem and the potential solutions," French says. "The Earth has been hit by objects from space many times before, so we know how bad the effects could be. For example, about 65 million years ago, a very large asteroid is thought to have hit the Earth in the southern Gulf of Mexico, wiping out the dinosaurs, and, in 1907, a very small airburst of a comet over Siberia flattened a forest over an area equal in size to New York City. The scale of our solution is similarly hard to imagine.
"Using a tether somewhere between 1,000 kilometers (roughly the distance from Raleigh to Miami) to 100,000 kilometers (you could wrap this around the Earth two and a half times) to divert an asteroid sounds extreme. But compare it to other schemes," French says, "They are all pretty far out. Other schemes include: a call for painting the asteroids in order to alter how light may influence their orbit; a plan that would guide a second asteroid into the threatening one; and of course, there are nukes. Nuclear weapons are an intriguing possibility, but have considerable political and technical obstacles. Would the rest of the world trust us to nuke an asteroid? Would we trust anyone else? And would the asteroid break into multiple asteroids, giving us more problems to solve?"
###
North Carolina State UniversityThanks to North Carolina State University for this article.
-
you are into space and these things is it?
-
ah yes. but me not the kind very "hooked" one
i am a casual reader of astronomy since 8~9 yrs old
-
Originally posted by Bangulzai:
ah yes. but me not the kind very "hooked" one
i am a casual reader of astronomy since 8~9 yrs old
wat makes u interested in it ?
-
got tuition teacher lend me her atlas coz dat time already v interested in geography n stuffs
the front chapters talks abt astronomy n i willing to find out more myself dat time
-
Originally posted by Bangulzai:
got tuition teacher lend me her atlas coz dat time already v interested in geography n stuffs
the front chapters talks abt astronomy n i willing to find out more myself dat time
how old are you actually?
-
i will let u know if i really go for outings
-
Originally posted by Bangulzai:
i will let u know if i really go for outings
then why not you go?
-
one fine day i should be really going
-
Originally posted by Bangulzai:
one fine day i should be really going
i guess u might want to come to our chalet?
-
ah i see that you all have gone through much effort to pull the sgforummers together
actually my mind had been thinking more about the "Incognito" gathering before
in the end oso did not go
-
Originally posted by Bangulzai:
ah i see that you all have gone through much effort to pull the sgforummers together
actually my mind had been thinking more about the "Incognito" gathering before
in the end oso did not go
tjhen why not come for this chalet?
-
i shall let u know when i made up my mind to go
erm, did u go to that incognito? if u went, can u tell me how was it?
-
Originally posted by Bangulzai:
i shall let u know when i made up my mind to go
erm, did u go to that incognito? if u went, can u tell me how was it?
it was cancel in the end
-
watz ?!?
i m shocked
-
Originally posted by Bangulzai:
watz ?!?
i m shocked
due to some unforseen circumstances. i will tell you tml if i see online. at least i have another person to talk to here though. =) gd night. sweet dreams n go to bed early le. later you get black rings then you know