Researchers Have a Plan for Massive Asteroids

Published: July 15, 2021, 7 p.m.

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Chinese researchers have been working on a plan to avoid an Armageddon-esque asteroid hitting Earth should the issue ever present itself.\\xa0

It doesn\\u2019t involve Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck, but rather, sending 23 of the country\\u2019s largest rockets in an effort to redirect the large rock.\\xa0

According to Reuters, researchers at China\\u2019s National Space Science Center discovered 23 Long March 5 rockets could change an asteroid\\u2019s original course by 1.4 times the radius of the Earth. Provided they all strike simultaneously.\\xa0

This method is deemed a lower risk than sending nuclear explosives to meet the asteroid. Such an act may result in smaller fragments that remain on a collision course with Earth.\\xa0

The researchers used an asteroid named Bennu to base their calculations. Bennu\\u2019s width is equivalent to the Empire State Building\\u2019s height. It orbits the sun and resides in a class of rocks all of which could result in regional and continental damage if they struck Earth.\\xa0

Any asteroid exceeding one kilometer in length is an issue on the global scale.\\xa0

China has already launched six Long March 5 rockets since 2016, but there is still work to be done. The sixth launch in May ended with debris reentering the atmosphere. Leading up to its landing in the Indian Ocean, the exact location of where the debris would hit was unknown.\\xa0

"By increasing the mass hitting the asteroid, simple physics should ensure a much greater effect,"\\xa0 Professor Alan Fitzsimmons, from the Astrophysics Research Centre at Queen's University Belfast, told Reuters. He added the actual operation of such a mission needs to be studied in greater detail.

Professor Gareth Collins at Imperial College London estimates a 1% chance of a 100-metre-wide asteroid hitting Earth in the next 100 years.

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