Stopping a destructive asteroid impact is not a walk in the park, even for the U.S. government, NASA, and other space agencies.
(Photo : Photo by Alexander Gerst / ESA via Getty Images)
In this handout photo provided by the European Space Agency (ESA) on July 17, 2014, German ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst took this image of the Earth reflecting light from the sun whilst aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
For the past years, NASA and other space experts have been trying numerous methods to stop space rocks from destroying the planet.
"We know that the dinosaurs went extinct by an asteroid or comet that hurt the Earth millions of years ago," said Nancy Chatbot, a Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab planetary scientist.
She added that what they want to do is to prevent it from happening again in the future.
Asteroid Impacts on Earth
According to Global News CA's latest report, NASA's estimation shows that Earth is hit by space rocks more than 6,000 times each year.
(Photo : Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
Las Vegas Astronomical Society vice president of special events Keith Caceres uses computer software connected to his telescope to locate asteroid 2014 JO25 outside the Planetarium at the College of Southern Nevada on April 19, 2017 in North Las Vegas, Nevada.
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The latest effort made by NASA to prevent asteroid impacts is the DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) mission.
The international space union used its DART satellite to hit Dimorphos, a space rock orbiting a larger asteroid called Didymos.
The mission was a success since DART's impact delayed the orbit of Dimorphos by 32 minutes.
This means that if a large asteroid is heading towards Earth, NASA can use another DART satellite to change the space rock's path.
Other Asteroid Impact Solutions
The DART satellite is not the only solution considered by the U.S. government and NASA to stop a destructive asteroid impact.
Space.Com provided other asteroid impact solutions that could be used as a last resort. These include the following:
- Nuclear weapons (The United States and other countries have powerful nuclear bombs that could change the trajectory of asteroids. But, these weapons should be detonated a few hundred meters away from the space rock to be effective)
- Ion propulsion (Experts also consider using ion propulsion; propulsion that relies on electrified or charged molecules)
- The "Armageddon"-like an explosion (Just like in the 1998 "Armageddon" movie, scientists also consider detonating a powerful bomb under the surface of a large asteroid. However, sending astronauts there would be difficult)
In other news, astronomers identified an asteroid three hours before crashing into Lake Ontario.
We also reported about a skyscraper-sized asteroid that was supposed to fly toward Earth last November 2022.
For more news updates about asteroids and other space objects, keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.
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