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Giant asteroid on collision course with Earth could NOT be stopped by a nuclear bomb, NASA simulation shows

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(Planet Today) An asteroid simulation exercise led by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) shows that none of our existing technology can take down a hypothetical giant asteroid discovered six months before it arrives.

(Article by Virgilio Marin republished from NaturalNews.com)

Indeed, the exercise suggests that even a nuclear bomb isn’t enough to break the asteroid apart because the rock is too big. It also shows that preparing a spacecraft to smash into the asteroid is not feasible given the small amount of time remaining before the collision.

What happens in the months leading up to an asteroid impact

NASA conducted the simulation exercise, which is called “Space Mission Options for the Hypothetical Asteroid Impact Scenario,” from April 26 through April 29 in collaboration with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. For the four-day drill, American and European scientists were given half a year to hatch a plan to stop a fictitious rock on a collision course to Earth.

Details of the scenario – such as the probability of impact and where and when the impact might occur – were given to the participants piece by piece over the course of four days to simulate how a real situation might play out.

On April 19, its first day, the simulation created an asteroid that could possibly threaten the Earth. Named 2021PDC, it was spotted 35 million miles away and estimated to have only a five percent probability of landing on the planet on Oct. 20.

But after receiving more data on the asteroid the next day, where the timeline was fast-forwarded to May, the participants found that the space rock actually had a 100 percent probability of making an impact. It would crash into either Europe or northern Africa.

The participants then started planning various missions to send a spacecraft to destroy the asteroid or deflect it off its path. But the team concluded that they wouldn’t be able to launch the mission given the short amount of time and limitations in technology.

They proposed nuking the asteroid to break it apart. But while computer models showed that a nuclear bomb could reduce the space rock to a less destructive size, the simulation stipulated that the asteroid could be anywhere from 114 feet to half a mile in size. This meant that there was little certainty a nuke could make a dent.

On day three, the exercise jumped to when the world was preparing for the collision. Data taken during the past few months showed that the asteroid’s expected impact region was somewhere around Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovenia and Croatia.

On day four, there was only less than a week before the impact. With the space rock only 3.9 million miles from the planet, astronomers were able to determine that the asteroid was much smaller than previously thought. It had a 99 percent probability of landing near the border of Germany, the Czech Republic and Austria. By the time it arrived, it would explode and generate as much energy as a nuclear bomb. Meanwhile, all that the could be done was to evacuate residents of the affected regions.

Incoming asteroids are often detected too late

While the exercise gave the scientists several months to prepare, in reality astronomers often detect incoming asteroids merely days or even minutes before impact, such as the case of the Chelyabinsk meteor.

Known as the most destructive asteroid to hit Earth recently, the 56-foot-wide meteor exploded without warning above the city of Chelyabinsk in Russia in February 2013. The explosion was 30 to 40 times stronger than the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima in 1945 and generated shockwaves that injured thousands and shattered windows.

But destructive as it was, the meteor was spotted only when it entered the atmosphere, at which point it was only a matter of minutes before it exploded. 

In the years since the Chelyabinsk event, space agencies like NASA had ramped up efforts to protect the planet from a catastrophic asteroid impact. One such effort was conducting a simulation exercise.

“Each time we participate in an exercise of this nature, we learn more about who the key players are in a disaster event, and who needs to know what information,” NASA’s planetary defense officer Lindley Johnson said after the latest simulation activity.

“These exercises ultimately help the planetary defense community communicate with each other and with our governments to ensure we are all coordinated should a potential impact threat be identified in the future,” Johnson went on.

Disaster.news has more about asteroid impacts and other cosmic disasters that affect life on Earth.

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Alien space debris stuck in Earth’s orbit, researchers say

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Recently, a group of experts from Harvard University, led by physics
professor Avi Loeb, announced the possible presence of alien space
debris in Earth’s orbit, reports the Daily Star.

Leading
space research expert Professor Loeb is confident that the discovery of
such “interstellar objects could help expand our knowledge of possible
alien civilizations and technologies. A team of scientists is conducting
research to confirm that some of the objects in our orbit may be
connected to other star systems.

During an interview with Live
Science, Professor Loeb explained that these objects could enter the
solar system from interstellar space, defying Jupiter’s gravitational
pull and occupying limited orbits around the sun.

Some of them may
have technological origins similar to the probes sent by mankind into
interstellar space, such as Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, Pioneer 10 and 11
and New Horizons.

However,
despite these interesting assumptions, Professor Loeb did not specify
what specific objects he was talking about. In his research report, he
notes that there could be “a significant number” of potentially
detectable objects in Earth’s orbit.

To confirm their assumptions,
the team of scientists uses computer simulations and the Vera Rubin
Observatory (Chile) with a high-resolution camera of 3.2 billion pixels.
This will allow for regular observations of the Southern sky and the
possibility of detecting several captured objects about the size of a
football field.

It is assumed that these interstellar objects passed through the
boundaries of the solar system and may carry unique information about
other civilizations and their technologies. If we could confirm the
origin of these objects, the mysteries that open before us, this would
be a real breakthrough in space exploration.

Professor Loeb
expresses hope that the new research will not only help expand our
knowledge of extraterrestrial technologies, but may also lead to the
discovery of new alien civilizations . Answers to such questions can be
of global significance and influence our understanding of the place of
mankind in the Universe.

And
while there are still many questions and assumptions, the study by
Professor Loeb and his team opens a new chapter in space exploration.
Each new discovery can be the key to deciphering the mysteries of the
cosmos and the possibility of encountering alien life forms.

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Space

Betelgeuse is acting strange again

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Betelgeuse, a red giant on the brink of death, continues to show
unusual behavior. After the Great Blackout, which occurred in late 2019
and early 2020, the star became unusually bright. It is now the seventh
brightest star in the sky, while it normally ranks tenth. This has led
to speculation that Betelgeuse is preparing to explode in a
spectacularly large supernova.

However, scientists believe it’s too early to tell, and it’s likely
that this behavior is due to ongoing fluctuations after the Great
Blackout of 2019, and the star will return to normal within a decade.

Betelgeuse is one of the most interesting stars in the sky. It is
about 700 light-years from Earth and is a red giant in the last stage of
its life. It is also an unusual star for a red giant because it was
previously a monster blue-white O-type star, the most massive class of
stars.

Betelgeuse has changed its spectral type because it has almost
exhausted its hydrogen reserves. It now burns helium into carbon and
oxygen and has expanded to a gigantic size: about 764 times the size of
the Sun and about 16.5 to 19 times its mass.

Eventually it will run out of fuel to burn, become a supernova, eject
its outer material, and its core will collapse into a neutron star.

Before the Great Blackout, Betelgeuse also had periodic fluctuations
in brightness. The longest of these cycles is about 5.9 years and the
other is 400 days. But it seems that the Great Blackout caused changes
in these oscillations.

A new paper by astrophysicist Morgan McLeod of the
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics has shown that the 400-day
cycle appears to have been halved. This pulsational cycle is probably
caused by expansion and contraction within the star. According to
simulations carried out by MacLeod and his colleagues, the convective
flow inside Betelgeuse may have risen and become material that separates
from the star.

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