The cutting-edge technology scientists hope can save us from CATASTROPHE

Asteroid ALERT: The cutting-edge technology scientists hope can save us from CATASTROPHE

Earth is under constant threat from space – but scientists have dreamt up some solutions

Earth is under constant threat from space.

Earlier this year, a kilometre-wide asteroid – dubbed 2014-YB35 – skimmed past our planet at 23,000mph.
Luckily – the staggering asteroid did not hit us. But we are not always so lucky.

The Chelyabinsk meteor smashed into the Earth in February 2013 with a kinetic energy 30 times greater than the atomic bomb which detonated at Hiroshima.

Light from the meteor was brighter than the Sun.

The superbolide ploughed into Russia and caused causing millions of pounds worth of damage – damaging some 7,200 buildings across six cities and leaving 1,500 people injured.

But the European Space Agency, or ESA, has announced a series of plans to keep our planet safe from life-threatening asteroids.

The plan – dubbed the Asteroid Impact Mission – hopes to deflect asteroids away from Earth using a kinetic impactor.

Scientists hope to use satellites to fire projectiles at the asteroid – and send it spiralling safely away from Earth.

The AIM satellites track the asteroids using lasers

 

ESA claims the AIM ships will then launch the small thruster onto the surface of the asteroid

The AIM satellites can monitor the progress of the thrust using infrared

It would also allow scientists to aim platinum-rich asteroids towards our planet, which could cover the cost of the entire system.

ESA have released a series of computer generated images to help illustrate the plan.
Asteroid Impact Mission are designed to circle close to the problem asteroid and fire a lander onto the surface of the space rock.

When the lander fires – the thrust will push the asteroid away from Earth.

But the European Space Agency is not the only organisation trying to design an outer space security system to defend our planet.

To celebrate Asteroid Week, the American Museum of Natural History released a YouTube clip to illustrate its plans.

The educational video shows an asteroid smashing into a metropolitan area, in an computer generated scene reminiscent of 1998 thriller Deep Impact.

"If it’s big enough, an asteroid from the asteroid belt can really do a lot of damage,” the narrator explains.
Division chair in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences for the New York City museum, Denton Ebel adds: "As a citizen, I want governments to be proactive on this, and that means that people need to support policies and support politicians who are aware and will push the science and the engineering and the technology.

"Big asteroids will hit the Earth, and we need to know how to do something about it."
One of the ideas featured in the American Museum of Natural History clip requires scientists to paint the asteroid bright-white, so the rays from the sun will push it off-course.

Mr Ebel has also proposed blowing up a larger asteroid, so that the smaller shards burn-up in the atmosphere like a meteor shower.

Experts are quick to reassure us that the chances of an asteroid strike are low – but it's nice to know we're getting prepared should one start heading our way.

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