it might happen one day not anytime soon though as nasa has repeatedly assured us
but one day it will happen for sure a small light will appear in the sky and as days pass
it will grow bigger and bigger approaching closer and closer heading straight for us all the wars
that we fought the historic revolutions the grand discoveries amazing inventions the billions
of people who lived and died young couples who thought they were invincible the brightest minds
all will come face to face with the inevitable or should i say the insatiable
one day an asteroid might come for us and end it all without any mercy but we aren't the
dinosaurs and that might be our biggest advantage every year countless asteroids fly past earth
and thankfully none of them have intruded our space but what if one decides to do that
let me tell you a story and this one is very important in this context
in 2021 space agencies from around the world took part in a nasa simulation of an asteroid impact
scenario the participating experts learned about a fictitious asteroid's trajectory and had to react
in this case a hypothetical asteroid 35 million miles away was approaching the planet and could
hit within six months with each passing day of the exercise the participants learned more about the
asteroid size trajectory and chance of impact then they had to cooperate and use their technological
knowledge to see if anything could be done to stop the space rock guess what the experts fell short
the group determined that none of earth's existing technologies
could stop the hypothetical asteroid from striking given the six-month time frame of the simulation
in this alternate reality the asteroid crashed into eastern europe but don't worry as far as
we know no asteroids currently pose a threat to earth in this way but an estimated two-thirds of
asteroids 460 feet in size or bigger large enough to wreak considerable havoc remain undiscovered
that's why nasa and other agencies are attempting to prepare for such a situation welcome to lab360
and today we will explore the top six ways we can defend ourselves from an incoming asteroid
number one our main strategy will depend entirely on the asteroids trajectory you might have an
advantage if you know exactly when and where the asteroid is going to hit don't you agree
well the most obvious way is to hide in the basement in other words civil defense
this is already being used for natural disasters such as tornadoes and hurricanes
why not for an asteroid then people can evacuate on short notice and hunker down and take cover
for small one meter asteroids this would be an ideal solution
it would also likely work against slightly bigger asteroids for example a 20-meter asteroid exploded
over the siberian city of chelyabinsk in 2013 injuring more than 1500 people the damage could
have been reduced if people had opted to hide in their basements residents were caught off
guard and did not seek cover therefore flying glass that was shattered in the impact shockwave
was mostly to blame for these injuries everyone probably would have been safe if there had been
even a slight warning for such a relatively small impact like this the resources needed to
defend the city would be far less as compared to resources needed to deflect the asteroid
but this entire situation depends on the size of the incoming asteroid if the asteroid is large
in size then the impact would be catastrophic and maybe would even pose a risk to the entire world
don't get me wrong even an asteroid as small as the one that landed in siberia
would pose a great threat if it were to land in a huge metropolitan city the larger the city the
more difficult it is for them to evacuate risking the loss of far more homes and infrastructure
in these cases there might be pressure to prevent the impact from happening only
number two as we have seen in the movies our response to incoming asteroids is always going to
be some old army general saying send in the nukes the most powerful tool designed by mankind also
happens to be the most controversial one it has long captured the imaginations of both real-life
specialists and filmmakers to use nuclear weapons to destroy an approaching asteroid in a last-ditch
bid to rescue the planet according to computer simulations a last-minute nuclear attack actually
has a fair probability of saving the planet that's fantastic news because the majority of other
potential techniques call for years if not decades of planning but like everything this method too
has its pros and its cons it is advised that this method be used in desperate situations only
as the negative side effects of doing so very close to earth could be just as terrible as the
repercussions of an impact itself nukes have been tested on our planet for the last 80 years but
did you know that there is an international law in place that doesn't allow us to test them in space
before we get ahead of ourselves let's get rid of this law first number three just ram
the space rock with a spaceship this is not a joke in fact this method is not only being considered
but is already being tested as well there is a very technical and sciency name for this method
it is known as the kinetic impactor technique the ki method is very simple ram a spacecraft into
the asteroid and use the spacecraft's momentum to change the momentum of the rock this method
will be tested by the double asteroid redirection test or dart which was launched in november 2021
in late september 2022 dart will target demorphos a 160 meter moon of the 780 meter asteroid die
demos with the goal of altering demorpho's orbit the alteration will be detectable from earth
if a series of ki missions are sent each of which gives the asteroid a modest touch
that adds up to a greater shove they would offer a non-nuclear alternative
for deflecting rocks up to a few hundred meters across
number four let gravity do its work why can't we use newton's discovery to our advantage
the law of physics states that small masses can have a string of gravitational pull
if they are close by the method entails operating a spacecraft with a very large mass
very close to the problematic asteroid and using the spacecraft's mass to attract the asteroid
the ability to control the spacecraft's position allows it to pull the asteroid in any direction
changing its orbit so that it misses earth the gravity tractor is a slow acting method
that could take decades to complete the task in contrast to nuclear devices or kinetic impactors
which accomplish the alteration instantly but on the other hand it also ensures a much more precise
result as compared to the other approaches number five planetary defenders have come
up with a few more options but these need to be studied further to see how viable they are
the yarkovsky effect is one such method it involves partly or wholly changing
the brightness of the threatening asteroid and allowing a non-gravitational force to alter the
asteroids orbit our sun plays a very important role in this when sunlight strikes a rotating
asteroid the dayside heats up and as the asteroid turns the night side cools and releases the heat
exerting a small thrust that can change the asteroid's direction over time
this would be effective but would be a highly time consuming project number six can you imagine
a scientist fire a laser into space exactly how it was portrayed in the old bond movies
the concept is similar but the motive is different the idea is to place a laser equipped spaceship
close to the asteroid and vaporize the surface below this would lighten the asteroids bulk
and act as a little rocket to alter its orbit but to accomplish this an extremely potent
laser would be needed along with a sizeable power supply and an array of solar panels
this is the most sci-fi option of them all and would definitely be a treat for the eyes
just watch pierce brosnan's die another day to understand the true power of laser beams
well that brings us to the end of the list and covers all the methods you need to know
on how we can as a species protect ourselves from potentially dangerous asteroids
asteroid impacts are unique disaster scenarios because with proper advance notice they can be
completely avoided numerous asteroids orbit close to earth and scientists are constantly cataloging
them to try to find any asteroids that may be on a collision trajectory if a real threat materializes
our course of action will also be influenced by how the affected country or countries react
scientists will continue to keep an eye on the skies and develop methods to send these
space rocks on their way before they land on earth's doorstep what do you guys think
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