Set as Homepage - Add to Favorites

日韩欧美成人一区二区三区免费-日韩欧美成人免费中文字幕-日韩欧美成人免费观看-日韩欧美成人免-日韩欧美不卡一区-日韩欧美爱情中文字幕在线

【hd ??? ??】We could nuke an incoming asteroid. Scientists just proved it.

Our descendants will — at some time in the future — almost certainly need to deflect an asteroid.

Though there is hd ??? ??no known threat for at leastthe next century, planetary defense experts are investigating how to divert such a large space rock, and one proposal involves detonating a nuclear device near the menacing object. The ensuing blast of energy would vaporize part of the asteroid's surface, shooting out a plume of material that acts like a temporary rocket engine. While testing this scenario in space is logistically and financially daunting, researchers leveraged an extremely powerful energy generator — the "Z Machine" in New Mexico — to successfully simulate the nuclear diversion.

Wait, wait, wait you might protest. Hasn't NASA already proven, on a real asteroid millions of miles away, that we can nudge such an object away from Earth by slamming a spacecraft into it? Yes, indeed.


You May Also Like

But it's possible that in some scenarios a nuclear blast would be necessary. Especially if we have relatively little time to act.

"For the largest asteroid, you need something more powerful to push it out of the way in time," Nathan Moore, a physicist at Sandia National Laboratories, told Mashable.

SEE ALSO: How Oppenheimer built an atomic bomb before the Nazis

The new research, led by Moore, has been published in the peer-reviewed science journal Nature Physics.

Arizona's 4,000-foot-wide (1,200-meter) Meteor Crater, created by an asteroid only some 150 feet (46 meters) across some 50,000 years ago. Arizona's 4,000-foot-wide (1,200-meter) Meteor Crater, created by an asteroid only some 150 feet (46 meters) across 50,000 years ago. Credit: USGS

Nuking an asteroid

To simulate a potent nuclear explosion in space, Moore and his team harnessed the most powerful X-ray generator on Earth.

Nuclear bombs generate a massive amount of X-rays, which would slam into an asteroid (on our planet, these nuclear X-rays heat the air and produce a fireball). Using the federal government's Z machine, scientists produced this effect on a smaller, and achievable, scale. "In outer space we wouldn't have a Z machine, we would have a nuclear device," Moore said. Located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the Z machine is humanity's most energetic pulsed power machine, meaning it releases vast amounts of stored electricity in just a fraction of a second.

Mashable Light Speed Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories? Sign up for Mashable's weekly Light Speed newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!
"You wouldn't want to take chances on an asteroid the size of a city."

The researchers created a small mock asteroid and suspended it in the Z machine's chamber using a thin foil, around eight times thinner than a strand of human hair. In a potent burst, the Z machine produced a bubble of X-rays that washed over the nickel-sized rock. Crucially, the pulse of energy also vaporized the foil, so the mock asteroid was briefly free-floating while getting blasted with X-rays — a vital part of the simulation because a real asteroid is untethered in space. The result?

It worked. The science team observed the energy pulse create a small rocket plume on one side of the mock asteroid, pushing the rock away from the direction of the X-rays.

"This is a neat experiment," Cathy Plesko, a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory who researches asteroid impacts, told Mashable. Plesko was not involved in this experiment but does work with the study's researchers on a larger collaboration that models asteroid impacts. She can now feed the Z machine's results into computer simulations to see how such a detonation would impact a larger-scale asteroid. "It's something I'm excited about," Plesko said.

The Z machine in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which simulated the detonation of a nuclear device near an asteroid.The Z machine in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which simulated the detonation of a nuclear device near an asteroid. Credit: Randy Montoya / Sandia Labs A graphic showing the simulated nuclear detonation inside the Z machine's chamber. The nuclear explosion, on right, is sending X-rays toward the mock asteroid, which is the vertical yellow object. The horizontal red lines, on left, demonstrate where the researchers measured the mock asteroid's recoil.A graphic showing the simulated nuclear detonation inside the Z machine's chamber. The nuclear explosion, on right, is sending X-rays toward the mock asteroid, which is the vertical yellow object. The horizontal red lines, on left, demonstrate where the researchers measured the mock asteroid's recoil. Credit: Sandia Labs

A spacecraft ferrying a nuclear device isn't under development. The aim here is to understand how to deploy such a blast, should it become necessary. When it comes to the largest class of asteroids, the type that wiped out most dinosaurs and triggered a long, callous winter, we certainly wouldn't want the endeavor to fail.

"You wouldn't want to take chances on an asteroid the size of a city," Moore said.


Related Stories
  • If a scary asteroid will actually strike Earth, here's how you'll know
  • The mega-comet hurtling through our solar system is 85, yes 85, miles wide
  • The best telescopes for gazing at stars and solar eclipses in 2024
  • NASA scientist viewed first Voyager images. What he saw gave him chills.
  • NASA’s most unusual astronaut has died

The likelihood of a major asteroid impact in our lives today remains exceedingly small. Every year, on average, an "automobile-sized asteroid" plummets through our sky and explodes, explains NASA. Impacts by objects around 460 feet (140 meters wide) in diameter occur every 10,000 to 20,000 years — which can cause regional devastation. And a "dinosaur-killing" impact from a rock perhaps a half-mile across or larger happens on 100-million-year timescales.

"With preparation there is no fear."

But now is an excellent time to investigate how to deflect asteroids using different methods. "The pressure is off," Plesko said. "We have time to do our homework very carefully." So when the time comes, we can collectedly choose the right course of action, nuclear or not. In the sage words of her martial arts instructor: "With preparation there is no fear."

The accelerated discovery of near-Earth asteroids of different sizes since 2000.The accelerated discovery of near-Earth asteroids of different sizes since 2000. Credit: NASA / CNEOS

Although NASA and its asteroid sleuthing program have found an estimated 90 percent of the largest behemoths — over a half-mile across — that sometimes pass near Earth's orbit around the sun (called near-Earth asteroids), surprises do happen. And they'll almost certainly happen again. An unexpected football-field-sized asteroid swung just 40,000 miles from Earth in 2019. A surprise 56-foot (17-meter) rock exploded over Russia and blew out people's windows in 2013. And some "planet-killer" asteroids are known to lurk around the orbits of Mercury and Venus, largely hidden by the glare of the sun.

But asteroids aren't inherently menacing. They're just ancient objects, formed early in our solar system's history, that inevitably strike planets from time to time. When one veers toward Earth, it's a celestial rock on its own long-lived trajectory.

"There's nothing personal with asteroids,"Plesko said.

0.13s , 9781.3203125 kb

Copyright © 2025 Powered by 【hd ??? ??】We could nuke an incoming asteroid. Scientists just proved it.,Public Opinion Flash  

Sitemap

Top 主站蜘蛛池模板: 国产麻豆乱子伦午夜视频观看 | 久久五月婷婷 | 无码不卡毛片视频免费播放 | 亚州少妇无套内射激情视频 | 日本一道dvd中文字幕 | 久久人人澡人人爽人人爱 | 五月六月丁香婷婷激情 | 久久久这里有精品 | 久久久国产精品99热在线观看国产伦精品一区二区三区免 | 91精品国产福利在线观看 | 久久AV无码乱码A片无码蜜桃 | 18国产精品白浆在线观看 | 成在线人免费无码高潮喷水 | 国产欧美日韩精品丝袜高跟鞋 | 亚洲 欧美 唯美 国产 伦 综合 | 麻豆精品无人区码一二三区别:解锁创作自由与合作 | 成人区精品一区二区毛片不卡 | 加勒比在线视频男人的天堂 | 国产精品美女乱子伦高潮 | 精品久久免费视频关看 | 精品综合久久久久久蜜月 | 日韩精品无码久久一区二区三 | 亚洲日韩AV一区二区三区中文 | 国内精品福利视频 | 91超级碰久久久久香蕉人人 | 天美传媒新剧国产资源 | 久久久久久一级精品毛片 | 四虎影视免费在线 | 日本无翼乌邪恶大全彩男男 | 精品一区二区三区在线成人 | 亚洲色无码A片一区二区情欲 | 亚洲国产日韩精品一区二区三区 | 成人精品视频在线观看不91在 | 久久中文字幕人妻AV熟女 | 亚洲高清无码加勒比 | 久久久无码精品亚洲日韩片 | 欧美寡妇xxxx黑人猛交 | 91国在线国内在线播放 | 久久九九少妇免费看A片 | 亚洲色成人网站www永久四虎 | 中文精品一卡2卡3卡4卡国色 |