Our last resource to defend ourselves from an Asteroid.

in Popular STEM2 years ago

Our last resource to defend ourselves from an Asteroid.



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The threat of asteroids is real especially because of the large number of small asteroids, many of which have not yet been discovered and have enough power to destroy a large city if we are unlucky enough to hit one, but do to defend the planet.


Well, if an asteroid is detected with time, I mean years, tactics can be tried to deflect the soft ones, if we have months we could send a missile to deflect it with the impact, because deflecting it is what scientists prefer, but for unfortunately or a small one or a few hundred meters in diameter, it can be discovered with only a few months or a few weeks in advance and that is a very big problem because although you can try it by launching a rocket or a missile to deflect it what happens if it goes wrong, what to do then?



We would have a plan B, since the professor of physics at the University of California at Santa Barbara Philip Lubin and the co-researcher Alexander Cohen have presented advances in space research a few weeks ago in the journal, which could be our last resort plan for defend the planet, in fact the researchers use a stronger term, they call it Terminal Defense for Humanity, and they call their strategy PI Short for pulverize it.



That is precisely what the researchers propose, to break up the asteroid as a last resort, the fragments of the asteroid, even if it breaks apart, will not change course, they will continue on a collision course with the earth, but most of them would disintegrate in the atmosphere without causing damage. , our dearest atmosphere is a good shield against space rocks, it can disintegrate those smaller than a couple of meters, unless they are metallic or made of a very dense material, but even if some remains hit it, it would not even remotely cause the damage that can be caused by an entire asteroid over 100 meters.



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That is why the idea of ​​disintegrating it, of breaking it as a last resort could be our salvation, the plan of the Californian researchers consists of building a rocket capable of hitting an asteroid, movement of which is not easy from the start, the head of the rocket The impactor, as it is more technically said, would in this case be loaded with explosives and the most original aspect of the project is that it would be equipped with a system of penetrating rods of between 10 and 30 centimeters in diameter and between 2 and 4 meters long.


These bars would have the objective of penetrating and breaking the asteroid, the effect would be like shooting it with a cannon full of nails and not only that, the researchers propose to install this defense system in permanent orbit to the earth to act as quickly as possible or even on a lunar base, in this way it could be acted in a matter of days or even in a matter of hours.


In fact, NASA liked the idea and included it in the advanced and innovative concepts program. I remind you that this would be the last-resort plan to apply when the rest of the plans went wrong and there were only a few days left for the impact, according to Lead researcher Lubin said verbatim that “the great advantage of this approach is that it enables terminal defense in terms of short alerts and target range mitigation when orbital drift is not feasible.”


What scientists prefer is to divert it, since even if it can be broken apart as I said before, the remains would continue on a collision course with the earth, although most of them in this case when they break apart would disintegrate in the atmosphere, which is a very bad thing minor.





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