New Delhi
Asteroid strikes can spell an end for thriving life on a planet. Just ask dinosaurs. Oh yeah, they are not here anymore. But based on what we've learnt from their broken, mangled sometimes charred remains obtained from their deep geologic graveyards, we know for sure that a space rock travelling at a speed of thousands of kilometres per second cannot exactly bring good tidings when it is resolved to hit Earth head on. Scientists and governments have been expending considerable energy to create a fool-proof solution to guard humanity in case another asteroid poses an existential threat to us.
Nuking the asteroid to pieces is an option. But it may make things worse as smaller pieces of the asteroid may still hit Earth. So the problem does require more looking into.
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Experts at Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) now have made a simuation that tells us what may happen if an asteroid is nuked. Is it really a bad idea?
The 'nuclear ablation'
The explosive technique these scientists have considered is called nuclear ablation. This technique involves vaporisation of some of asteroid's surface using radiation from the nuclear blast. This would in turn create an explosive thrust and change the velocity of the asteroid.
The model is called X-ray energy deposition model.
The researchers have written a paper on this which has been published in The Planetary Science Journal.
To make the simulation model, the researchers considered a wide range of conditions that took into account different types of asteroids humanity has been able to study closely. Some of the asteroids considered for the simulation were solid rocks to rubble piles. The wide range of data considered to make the simulation expansive.
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"If we have enough warning time, we could potentially launch a nuclear device, sending it millions of miles away to an asteroid that is headed toward Earth," said researcher Mary Burkey as quoted in a press release from LLNL.
"We would then detonate the device and either deflect the asteroid, keeping it intact but providing a controlled push away from Earth, or we could disrupt the asteroid, breaking it up into small, fast-moving fragments that would also miss the planet."
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NASA has already carried out the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission in which a kinetic impacter was crashed on an asteroid to study how such an approach would alter the trajectory.
The new model created by LLNL's scientists is likely to give other scientists from around the world to better understand and build upon the knowledge already gathered about deflecting or destroying a dangerous asteroid.
"While the probability of a large asteroid impact during our lifetime is low, the potential consequences could be devastating," said Megan Bruck Syal, LLNL's planetary defense project lead.
(With inputs from agencies)