Atomexplosion könnte Erde vor großem Asteroiden retten, sagen Wissenschaftler | US-Physiker zeigen, wie gewaltiger Strahlungsimpuls die Seite eines Asteroiden verdampfen und ihn vom Kurs abbringen könnte
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/sep/23/nuclear-blast-could-save-earth-from-large-asteroid
5 Comments
Yeah. That’s very basic science and not news. Scientists have been discussing this openly for a long time.
Well sure, but we would only use nukes as a last resort. We could easily divert an asteroid simply by smashing something into it, or even putting a small craft next to it.
“Scientists Say fire hot! Could be used to make other things hot!”
i thought we were lost when bruce wllis announced his illness.
There are WAY too many variables for anyone to say conclusively what we could or could not do with regard to interception and any potential changes we could make to a trajectory. Composition of the object is a huge consideration here. A solid chunk of iron is going to behave much differently than a collection of rocks loosely held together by gravity (like Bennu).
There are three big problems with an intercept/diversion to prevent an impact.
1. Detection. We keep getting better at finding objects, but still regularly get surprised by things we didn’t find up to that point. Assuming we find the object, that leads to the next problem
2. Size, mass, composition, and trajectory. The bigger/more massive the object, the more likely it is we will detect it. The problem is the bigger the object, the more difficult it would be to move. I feel like there’s probably not a huge overlap of “objects big enough to detect at a reasonable distance” and “objects small enough that we could actually move them”. The sooner we detect the object, the better our chances. The further away the object is, the less its trajectory needs to change to avoid an impact
3. Time. If we’re fortunate, we will have plenty of time as an object makes several passes before a potential impact. If we’re unfortunate, the object is on a direct collision course the first time we detect it. Given our current technology, it may be difficult to launch a direct intercept mission that reaches the object in time to make a trajectory change sufficient to avoid a collision. In terms of objects moving in space, the things we launch generally move pretty slowly, especially if we need to directly ascend to where we need to go without the use of a gravity assist.
That’s a long and somewhat uneducated way of saying the article is little more than content-mill clickbait.