"This technique is called nuclear deflection and, unlike in the movies, the goal is not to blow the approaching asteroid into smithereens. Instead, a precisely timed nuclear explosion could give the asteroid just enough of a nudge to sail harmlessly past Earth. Until now, experts have raised concerns that nuclear deflection would shatter an asteroid into many pieces, which would collectively pose an even greater risk."
"The researchers used CERN's 4.3 mile (7km) Super Proton Synchrotron to blast a fragment of a meteor with a stream of high-energy protons - stable positively charged particles found inside atoms. A piece of the Campo del Cielo meteorite, a metal-rich iron-nickel body, was exposed to 27 successive short bursts from the particle accelerator to simulate the impact of a nuclear blast."
Researchers simulated nuclear deflection on metal-rich asteroid material by exposing a Campo del Cielo meteorite fragment to successive high-energy proton bursts in CERN's Super Proton Synchrotron. The experiment modeled the mechanical response to intense impact, revealing that asteroid metal initially softened and flexed but then unexpectedly strengthened without fragmenting. A new simulation and laboratory results indicate some asteroid materials become more resilient under extreme forces, reducing the risk of creating hazardous debris from a nuclear deflection. The findings suggest that precisely timed nuclear explosions could impart a small trajectory change to an incoming asteroid, steering it past Earth safely.
Read at Mail Online
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