Scientists Say We Should Blow Up This Dangerous Asteroid Before It Gets Here
A group of scientists, including ones from NASA, is exploring options for a different near-Earth space rock, dubbed 2024 YR4, which the agency’s Center for Near Earth Objects believes has a mere 0.00081 percent chance of hitting us — but a much larger four percent chance of hitting the Moon — in December 2032.
But even if it only strikes the Moon, the results could still be dangerous for astronauts in space, who could be battered by debris resulting from the collision.
They propose detonating the space rock using “nuclear explosive devices,” a violent option that could allow us to explore yet another way of deflecting potentially dangerous near-Earth space rocks — “even if lunar impact is ruled out,” the researchers say.
The researchers found that there isn’t enough time to launch a “reconnaissance mission” first to get a better idea of its mass — required data for a successful deflection attempt. Thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope observations, we know it measures nearly 300 feet in length, but its mass remains a notable unknown.
The team calculated that 2024 YR4’s mass could range anywhere from 72.7 million to a whopping 2 billion pounds, which would make designing a DART-like mission practically impossible.
The best option for a recon mission is a “late 2028” launch, they found, which would only leave roughly three years to intercept the asteroid.
On the other hand, for a “kinetic robust disruption” — essentially blowing it up into pieces — the team concluded that NASA could have anywhere from five to seven years to develop a mission. For a “nuclear disruption,” the next available launch window ranges from late 2029 to late 2031.
The team proposed sending two 100-kiloton nuclear devices capable of navigating space by themselves to the asteroid, each of which is roughly five to eight times as powerful as the nuclear bombs the United States dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima in 1945. A backup explosive would be kept “onboard in case it is needed,” the researchers wrote.
https://futurism.com/space/detonate-dang...id-nuclear
A group of scientists, including ones from NASA, is exploring options for a different near-Earth space rock, dubbed 2024 YR4, which the agency’s Center for Near Earth Objects believes has a mere 0.00081 percent chance of hitting us — but a much larger four percent chance of hitting the Moon — in December 2032.
But even if it only strikes the Moon, the results could still be dangerous for astronauts in space, who could be battered by debris resulting from the collision.
They propose detonating the space rock using “nuclear explosive devices,” a violent option that could allow us to explore yet another way of deflecting potentially dangerous near-Earth space rocks — “even if lunar impact is ruled out,” the researchers say.
The researchers found that there isn’t enough time to launch a “reconnaissance mission” first to get a better idea of its mass — required data for a successful deflection attempt. Thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope observations, we know it measures nearly 300 feet in length, but its mass remains a notable unknown.
The team calculated that 2024 YR4’s mass could range anywhere from 72.7 million to a whopping 2 billion pounds, which would make designing a DART-like mission practically impossible.
The best option for a recon mission is a “late 2028” launch, they found, which would only leave roughly three years to intercept the asteroid.
On the other hand, for a “kinetic robust disruption” — essentially blowing it up into pieces — the team concluded that NASA could have anywhere from five to seven years to develop a mission. For a “nuclear disruption,” the next available launch window ranges from late 2029 to late 2031.
The team proposed sending two 100-kiloton nuclear devices capable of navigating space by themselves to the asteroid, each of which is roughly five to eight times as powerful as the nuclear bombs the United States dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima in 1945. A backup explosive would be kept “onboard in case it is needed,” the researchers wrote.
https://futurism.com/space/detonate-dang...id-nuclear
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
