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posted by hubie on Thursday October 10, @12:21AM   Printer-friendly
from the what-could-go-wrong-besides-global-nuclear-winter? dept.

Scientists simulated a nuclear explosion using x-ray pulses to push an asteroid-like rock away in space-like conditions:

It's been almost 25 years since Bruce Willis, playing the fictional character Harry Stamper in the blockbuster movie, Armageddon, saved Earth from an asteroid careering towards the planet. In true Hollywood fashion, he did this by detonating a nuclear bomb implanted in the asteroid, preventing what scientists call a "mass extinction event". The whole world cheered (at least in the movie).

The world might be able to cheer for real now. In a study published in Nature Physics, physicists at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, US, say they have simulated a nuclear X-ray pulse directed onto the side of an asteroid to change the trajectory of the asteroid and avoid a collision with the Earth.

[...] Scientists used an X-ray pulse inside a vacuum to simulate a nuclear explosion on the surface of an asteroid-like rock in space-like conditions. The pulse created a vapour plume which pushed the rock away.

"The vaporised material shoots off one side, pushing the asteroid in the opposite direction," Dr Nathan Moore, the lead author of the new study, said in a press statement.

In an interview with Space.com, an online publication focused on space exploration and astronomy, Moore said: "You have to concentrate a lot of power, about 80 trillion watts, into a very small space, the size of a pencil lead, and very quickly, about 100 billionths of second, to generate a hot enough argon plasma, several millions of degrees, to make a powerful enough X-ray burst to heat the asteroid material surface to tens of thousands of degrees to give it enough push."

[...] Although only a simulation, the outcome of the experiment suggests that using a nuclear X-ray pulse on an asteroid could potentially change its trajectory enough to prevent a collision with the Earth.

"I knew right away that this was a huge success," said Moore.

There is a significant difference between planting a nuclear bomb on an asteroid and directing a nuclear X-ray pulse to part of an asteroid to nudge it onto a different trajectory.

If a space agency were to successfully detonate a nuclear bomb on an asteroid, scientists have cautioned that the asteroid would be likely to break into smaller chunks, potentially causing multiple asteroid impacts on Earth instead of just one.

Even if the trajectory of the biggest chunk of the asteroid was changed, there would be no guarantee that the other fragments of the asteroid would travel away from Earth.

Using an X-ray pulse, scientists can generate energy to vapourise enough material from the surface of the asteroid to result in a push that would change the trajectory of the asteroid rather than blasting it into smaller fragments.


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  • (Score: 2) by Barenflimski on Thursday October 10, @02:14AM

    by Barenflimski (6836) on Thursday October 10, @02:14AM (#1376402)

    If Harry Stamper says it can be done, no one should argue. This guy has already saved earth once, don't tie his hands!

  • (Score: 2) by ChrisMaple on Thursday October 10, @03:23AM (2 children)

    by ChrisMaple (6964) on Thursday October 10, @03:23AM (#1376404)

    How big is the rock? How much time before impacting Earth? What should be considered an adequate safety margin for missing Earth? Without information like that, the article is neither educational nor interesting; it's a waste of time.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 10, @04:05AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 10, @04:05AM (#1376406)

    and he's not getting any younger. We need to get this show moving!! Where's the rocket? Where's Bruce Willis? Where's the asteroid??

    Get it nuked while we still have Bruce! Before it's too late!!

  • (Score: 2) by Nuke on Thursday October 10, @11:20PM (1 child)

    by Nuke (3162) on Thursday October 10, @11:20PM (#1376505)

    If a space agency were to successfully detonate a nuclear bomb on an asteroid, scientists have cautioned that the asteroid would be likely to break into smaller chunks, potentially causing multiple asteroid impacts on Earth instead of just one.

    I don't agree. Fragmented, it would need to be very close already for multiple chunks to hit Earth. Further out, Earth would be a tiny target and those chunks are no more likely to hit it than the numerous other small random asteroids out there, because their paths would be fanning out after the detonation. Anyway, we can tolerate smaller asteroid strikes better than one big one; small strikes often happen.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by mcgrew on Friday October 11, @05:03PM

      by mcgrew (701) <publish@mcgrewbooks.com> on Friday October 11, @05:03PM (#1376589) Homepage Journal

      Are you too young to remember Shoemaker-Levy [wikipedia.org] when a comet got caught in Jupiter's gravity and broke up? Once it's in the grip of Earth's gravitational field it's far too late to do anything except make the situation worse.

      And after you blow it up, you have radioactive meteors coming at you instead of just one big but non-radioactive meteor.

      --
      We not only don't have all the answers, we don't even have all of the questions.
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