Countermeasures once morest ‘potentially threatened asteroids’
“Six months and 14 days later.”
Astronomy professor Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio) and graduate student Kate Dibiaski (Jennifer Lawrence) discover a new comet one night. The excitement of the celebration party is brief, and those who were calculating the comet’s expected orbit freeze for a moment. This is because the comet will collide with the Earth, and the remaining period is only regarding six months.
The two researchers meet the president, appear on television talk shows, and run wild. It appealed for urgent action. But it was all in vain. The president uses the comet as a material to break through the political crisis. Entrepreneurs go so far as to thwart their interception plan, claiming that the comet has a huge amount of minerals. Movies released last month <돈 룩 업(Don’t look up)> I mean. <돈 룩 업>describes the comet impact as an existential, catastrophic threat. It is a material chosen to pinch the human race who do not respond urgently to situations where catastrophe is evident. We have a similar attitude towards climate change.
Although it is a cinematic setting, there is always a possibility that a large object floating in space will fall to the Earth as a reality. Along with comets, one of such cosmic objects is an asteroid. Debris that did not become a planet might threaten the Earth at any time.
1km diameter giant asteroid ‘1994PC1’
Approaching 1.93 million km from Earth on the 19th
There is no possibility of a collision, but the scientific community pays attention
Reenactment of the Russian crisis in 2013 was ‘spooky’
■ ’63 Building Quadruple’ Asteroid Approach
But next week, a giant asteroid approaches Earth. It is an asteroid named ‘1994PC1’ with a diameter of 1km and 4 times the size of the 63 Building. It will approach 1.93 million km from Earth at 6:51 am (Korean time) on the 19th. 5 times the distance between the moon and the earth. In fact, this distance is not at the level of a ‘collision crisis’. However, given that the universe is vast, the scientific community evaluates that it is not too far away. An asteroid the size of 1994PC1 collides with Earth regarding once every 600,000 years. Like the 1994PC1 asteroid, an asteroid with a diameter of 140 m or more that approaches the Earth within regarding 7.5 million km is called a ‘potentially threatened asteroid (PHA)’ by the scientific community. Currently, there are regarding 2,000 PHAs.
1994PC1 won’t collide with Earth, but not all asteroids pass Earth ‘fortunately’. It happened in the skies of Chelyabinsk, Russia in 2013. A 17-meter-diameter asteroid exploded in mid-air, destroying 7,000 factories and houses, and injuring 1,000 people. When an asteroid with a diameter of 1 km falls on Earth, several countries immediately disappear from the map, as well as dust that rises into the atmosphere when the asteroid collides with the ground, causing the entire planet to fall into an ice age. The ecosystem will come to an end.
■ Helpless even if an asteroid flies
If an asteroid collides with Earth, what can humans do? There is no pointed way now. American movie <아마겟돈>Sending a commando to bury an asteroid with a bomb is still just an imagination. There are opinions regarding launching a nuclear missile, but there are still concerns regarding whether the asteroid can be completely destroyed and whether radioactivity will not strike the Earth. Researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara, USA, recently proposed to mount several metal sticks on the missile and then bombard the asteroid like bullets. Expectations are that the asteroid hit by a metal stick will be shattered with fatal ‘piercing wounds’.
A more gentle method is being devised. It shakes the orbit of the asteroid with light. Hong-gyu Moon, a senior researcher at the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, said, “The scientific community is also examining a method of levitating a large mirror in space and intensively reflecting sunlight on the asteroid’s surface to move the asteroid as a result of the reaction. There is an opinion that it can be done,” he said.
“Change the trajectory by colliding with an artificial object”
NASA test results confirmed in September
■ Pay attention to the success of ‘direct collision’
But the most realistic countermeasure is to hit an asteroid with an artificial object to change its flight trajectory. It is technically the easiest, and the orbital correction effect appears quickly. Researcher Hong-gyu Moon said, “To prevent an asteroid, it is easiest to deliver an impact directly to the asteroid. did.
Humanity has entered into a confirmation that this method is really possible. In November of last year, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launched a spacecraft with a mission called the ‘Double Asteroid Reorientation Experiment (DART)’. A DART spacecraft weighing 620 kg collides with an asteroid ‘Dimorphus’ with a diameter of 160 m in September of this year. If the experiment is successful, humanity will lay the groundwork for technology that can prevent catastrophe caused by asteroids.
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