6/10/2023 0 Comments Scientists finetune asteroid earth![]() Our nuclear missiles could be effective against smaller asteroids, but any object big enough to threaten our civilization would be too big to be destroyed in such a way. ![]() The science fiction notion of blasting an asteroid out of the sky might not be enough to protect humanity, researchers say. Next time, however, we might be ready for it - with scientists across the globe developing numerous strategies for planetary defense. The events such as the Chelyabinsk blast, or the more devastating Tunguska incident in 1908, remain very rare. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Scientists estimate that the object was 59 feet (18 meters) wide.ĭivers recover chunk of Russian meteorite Still, the resulting shockwave knocked people off their feet, shattered windows in six Russian cities, and the fireball temporarily blinded scores of observers on the ground. As the blast happened over 23 kilometers above ground, most of the energy was absorbed by the atmosphere and nobody was killed. ![]() In 2013, a much smaller and previously undetected meteor exploded over Chelyabinsk, releasing the energy equivalent around 30 Hiroshima atom bombs, according to NASA. With its diameter of 4.4 kilometers, NASA classifies the object as "potentially hazardous." An impact with an asteroid this size would cause unprecedented destruction. According to NASA, Florence was "the largest asteroid to pass this close to our planet since the first near-Earth asteroid was discovered over a century ago." The blast-off was shown live on Nasa TV and on the SpaceX Twitter account.An asteroid named Florence whizzed past Earth on Friday, safely passing us by at the distance of 7 million kilometers (4.4 million miles) from the surface. The team behind Dart chose the Didymos system because its relative proximity to Earth and dual-asteroid configuration make it ideal for observing the results of the impact. But scientists say smaller asteroids are far more common and pose a greater theoretical danger in the near term. The asteroid being targeted by Dart poses no actual threat and is tiny compared with the cataclysmic Chicxulub asteroid that struck Earth 66m years ago, leading to extinction of the dinosaurs. Cameras mounted on the impactor and on a briefcase-sized mini-spacecraft to be released from Dart about 10 days beforehand will record the collision and beam images of it back to Earth. Once there Dart will test its ability to alter an asteroid’s trajectory with sheer kinetic force. The Dart payload, about the size of a small car, was released from the booster minutes after launch to begin its 10-month journey into deep space, some 6.8 million miles (11 km) from Earth. If the mission is successful, it will mean that Nasa and other space agencies could deflect an asteroid heading towards Earth and avert an Armageddon-style impact. The plan is to crash the robot spacecraft into the moonlet Dimorphos at 15,000mph (24,100km/h) and change its path by a fraction.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |