WEBVTT - Can we stop an asteroid from hitting Earth? 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.960 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:08.920 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 0:00:09.000 --> 0:00:17.840 tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone, 0:00:17.880 --> 0:00:20.320 Welcome to tech Stuff. My name is Chris Poulett, and 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:22.400 I'm an editor at how stuff works dot com. Sitting 0:00:22.400 --> 0:00:25.239 across from me as usual, its senior writer Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:25.360 --> 0:00:28.080 All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go. I'm 0:00:28.120 --> 0:00:30.760 standing here outside your door. I hate to wake you 0:00:30.840 --> 0:00:38.040 up to say goodbye. Okay, clearly you have been seen Armagedon. Yeah, 0:00:38.080 --> 0:00:40.199 I have. I just tried to put it out of 0:00:40.240 --> 0:00:43.360 my head that that song's in it. And we're gonna 0:00:43.400 --> 0:00:47.680 be talking about asteroids and preventing a collision with Earth 0:00:47.720 --> 0:00:49.839 and what sort of tech would be involved with that. 0:00:50.159 --> 0:00:54.440 And this comes courtesy of some Facebook requests and email requests. 0:00:54.480 --> 0:00:57.080 I can't believe that we had people send us multiple 0:00:57.080 --> 0:01:01.360 people sent us this request, which seems really specific for 0:01:01.600 --> 0:01:04.440 more than one person. But hey, we're gonna do it. 0:01:05.760 --> 0:01:09.760 And um, you know, if you have seen the documentary Armagedon, 0:01:10.560 --> 0:01:13.440 you remember that we shot Bruce Willis up into space 0:01:14.040 --> 0:01:16.560 um with Ben Affleck and some other folks like Steve 0:01:16.600 --> 0:01:19.880 Bussemmy to scare an asteroid out of the way, because 0:01:19.920 --> 0:01:22.959 Steve Bussummey is a scary guy. Uh wait, I think 0:01:22.959 --> 0:01:24.520 I might be. I think I might be a little 0:01:24.560 --> 0:01:26.759 off track. Oh well, anyway, the premise of the movie 0:01:26.840 --> 0:01:29.560 was that there was this enormous asteroid the size of Texas, 0:01:29.800 --> 0:01:36.360 which put the way, not that guy, do you do? Yeah? 0:01:36.440 --> 0:01:39.920 That that's that's a reference that goes over everyone's head 0:01:40.040 --> 0:01:42.720 because no one, none of our listeners have ever played 0:01:42.760 --> 0:01:46.160 the game Asteroids. Any really, some of you have played 0:01:46.160 --> 0:01:51.160 Asteroids and maybe maybe, uh maybe our our buddy Floyd 0:01:51.200 --> 0:01:54.240 the truck driver, he might have hopefully not while driving. 0:01:54.440 --> 0:01:57.240 Well I hope not. Anyway, we're getting off track already. 0:01:57.320 --> 0:02:00.120 So the whole, the whole premise of the movie is 0:02:00.120 --> 0:02:02.360 that there's this giant asteroid the size of Texas that's 0:02:02.360 --> 0:02:04.760 going to be flying at Earth. And so they come 0:02:04.840 --> 0:02:07.880 up with this idea where they scramble a bunch of 0:02:07.440 --> 0:02:13.000 of uh minors essentially to shoot up into space, land 0:02:13.040 --> 0:02:16.360 on the asteroid, and plant a nuclear device on the 0:02:16.400 --> 0:02:19.440 asteroid that will blow it up to tiny little bits 0:02:19.480 --> 0:02:22.600 and save the Earth. And so we want to address 0:02:22.720 --> 0:02:25.760 this um this first, so let's let's get this all 0:02:25.800 --> 0:02:28.639 the way. That would not work. That would that would 0:02:28.680 --> 0:02:32.600 be a bad thing. First of all, the power of 0:02:32.639 --> 0:02:36.240 such a device is hard to imagine. How would you 0:02:36.280 --> 0:02:40.800 create a nuclear device powerful enough to explode texas into 0:02:40.840 --> 0:02:45.040 tiny bits the equivalent of texas flying at you. Also, 0:02:45.080 --> 0:02:48.480 by the way, an asteroid that size would pretty much 0:02:48.480 --> 0:02:52.079 wipe out everybody. Um. You know, when we talk about 0:02:52.120 --> 0:02:55.680 asteroids that are are dangerous enough to wipe out a city, 0:02:56.040 --> 0:02:59.880 fifty yards is big enough. A fifty yard asteroid like 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:05.760 asteroid fifty yards across, we have enough power, enough enough 0:03:05.800 --> 0:03:10.000 force to destroy a city if it impacted the city. Um. Now, 0:03:10.360 --> 0:03:15.360 NASA classifies earth threatening asteroids as being a hundred and 0:03:15.400 --> 0:03:19.120 forty meters or larger. But then that conveniently is about 0:03:19.120 --> 0:03:24.080 the size that we can detect them. Well, it's uh, 0:03:24.200 --> 0:03:27.120 it's important to note too that it's happened before. You know, 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:30.920 we have been hit with with many space objects in 0:03:30.960 --> 0:03:36.240 the past, and I assume to some small degree continue 0:03:36.280 --> 0:03:38.800 to do so, like something that we hear about in 0:03:38.800 --> 0:03:41.320 the news every day, But every single day the Earth 0:03:41.440 --> 0:03:46.480 is hit by by tiny little object. Granted we haven't 0:03:46.480 --> 0:03:49.400 been hit by a massive asteroid in a really long time. 0:03:49.480 --> 0:03:52.920 But meteorites hit the Earth every day. Sometimes they're so 0:03:52.960 --> 0:03:56.440 small that you know, they're almost undetectable, but it does 0:03:56.560 --> 0:04:00.160 happen the But yeah, they've happened in the past. I mean, 0:04:00.920 --> 0:04:04.560 that's what wiped out the dinosaurs was an asteroid impact 0:04:04.720 --> 0:04:08.320 or possibly common impact, but it was a massive impact 0:04:08.360 --> 0:04:11.520 that that altered the Earth's climate, and dinosaurs did not 0:04:11.600 --> 0:04:16.120 have air conditioning, so they were pretty much doomed. Doomed. 0:04:16.680 --> 0:04:21.120 I figured it was their debaucherous lifestyle and it was unsustainable. 0:04:21.200 --> 0:04:24.240 Now you're thinking of Rome, right, you know, I get 0:04:24.279 --> 0:04:26.280 this confused a lot. Yeah, well, you know, if you've 0:04:26.279 --> 0:04:30.040 ever seen a t rex in Atoga never mind, So 0:04:30.560 --> 0:04:34.680 so why would this plan not work with destroying an 0:04:34.760 --> 0:04:38.200 asteroid with a nuclear device. Let's assume that, for for 0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:43.040 argument's sake, that somehow you managed to find a nuclear 0:04:43.080 --> 0:04:48.000 device capable of breaking up a Texas sized asteroid while 0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:49.920 it was hurtling towards Earth. And keep in mind this 0:04:49.960 --> 0:04:53.039 was this this asteroid was close to Earth by the 0:04:53.080 --> 0:04:56.320 time it blows up. Otherwise it's not nearly as dramatic 0:04:56.360 --> 0:04:58.560 an ending. Right, of course, you've gotta have it close 0:04:58.640 --> 0:05:00.800 enough to the Earth where people are starting really freak out. 0:05:01.080 --> 0:05:03.440 Oh and how long exactly did they have to prepare 0:05:03.480 --> 0:05:05.520 for this. It was like a couple of days or 0:05:05.560 --> 0:05:08.440 something like that. It was crazy short time period. We 0:05:08.480 --> 0:05:12.200 would know. Yeah, anything that's anything that that size, we 0:05:12.240 --> 0:05:15.400 would be able to spot between Mars and Jupiter, giving 0:05:15.480 --> 0:05:19.520 us years, literally years to prepare. It would not be 0:05:19.600 --> 0:05:21.719 a last minute thing. And um, that's one of the 0:05:21.760 --> 0:05:24.560 myths that movies perpetuate is that you know, you have 0:05:24.720 --> 0:05:28.840 some uh, some some amateur astronomer out in the middle 0:05:28.880 --> 0:05:31.120 of nowhere just looking up and saying, that's weird that 0:05:31.160 --> 0:05:35.160 star wasn't there yesterday. And then and then that information 0:05:35.360 --> 0:05:38.480 slowly filters its way to some official source, which immediately 0:05:38.480 --> 0:05:41.640 clamps down and keeps it all secret so that nobody 0:05:41.720 --> 0:05:44.160 knows that doom is on the way until it leaks 0:05:44.160 --> 0:05:46.520 to the media causing a panic. Yeah, that we don't 0:05:46.560 --> 0:05:49.599 want to cause a panic. That's definitely Hollywood related. So 0:05:49.839 --> 0:05:52.840 why would blowing up the asteroid not be a good idea? Well, 0:05:53.520 --> 0:05:56.000 that asteroids moving at a really fast speed and the 0:05:56.080 --> 0:05:58.920 nuclear warhead is not going to slow it down. Okay, 0:05:58.920 --> 0:06:01.760 so you've still got this this material moving at an 0:06:01.800 --> 0:06:06.479 incredible speed, and the mass isn't gone. You haven't destroyed 0:06:06.480 --> 0:06:09.240 the mass, You've just spread it out some So instead 0:06:09.240 --> 0:06:12.320 of it being a one massive asteroid hitting the Earth, 0:06:12.360 --> 0:06:15.080 it's a whole bunch of them hitting the Earth. And 0:06:15.120 --> 0:06:18.799 it's like the difference between getting hit by a slug 0:06:18.880 --> 0:06:23.120 and getting hit by um shotgun shot. You know, you 0:06:23.279 --> 0:06:26.320 just spread out the area of impact, is what you've done. 0:06:26.920 --> 0:06:30.800 This is mission control. We just wanted to say, Oops, yeah, 0:06:30.960 --> 0:06:34.719 are bad so um so yeah, here's here's while this 0:06:34.760 --> 0:06:37.560 stuff would really work in the real world. All Right, 0:06:37.720 --> 0:06:41.679 We've got lots of powerful telescopes pointing in all sorts 0:06:41.680 --> 0:06:44.560 of directions. Now, so the the the myths of the 0:06:44.600 --> 0:06:48.680 amateur astronomer who detects uh something the size the size 0:06:48.680 --> 0:06:52.320 that's in depicted an armageddon is really that's that's busted 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:55.640 because it would be detected by much more powerful telescopes 0:06:55.760 --> 0:07:01.080 much earlier, and um that information would go to uh 0:07:01.200 --> 0:07:05.280 it's kind of a clearing house for near Earth objects 0:07:05.320 --> 0:07:09.960 that could potentially cause harm. It's called the Minor Planet Center. 0:07:10.440 --> 0:07:14.960 It's in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Now, the Minor Planet Center would 0:07:14.960 --> 0:07:17.800 then take the information that was sent to it, which 0:07:17.880 --> 0:07:21.480 usually would involve the size of the asteroid and it's 0:07:21.480 --> 0:07:24.480 its shape of orbit around the Sun and whether that 0:07:24.600 --> 0:07:27.840 orbit could potentially uh collide with the Earth. Send that 0:07:27.880 --> 0:07:31.560 information out to observatories all across the planet. Now, these 0:07:31.560 --> 0:07:35.560 observatories would then train their telescopes onto the object to 0:07:35.640 --> 0:07:37.960 try and make their own calculations based upon their own 0:07:38.520 --> 0:07:42.080 their own perspective, to see if perhaps this would be 0:07:42.160 --> 0:07:47.960 a quote unquote interesting object. Now, in astronomical terms, interesting 0:07:48.000 --> 0:07:52.360 means holy crap, we're all going to die. That's the 0:07:52.440 --> 0:07:56.320 that's what they mean by interesting as in potentially impact 0:07:56.360 --> 0:08:00.200 the Earth interesting. And that information would then be shared 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:05.160 amongst those observatories, and the likelihood of a clamp down 0:08:05.320 --> 0:08:07.320 is really low, just because you have so many people 0:08:07.320 --> 0:08:09.880 who would be involved in this and have the information, 0:08:09.920 --> 0:08:12.960 and lots of them were gonna talk. A lot of 0:08:12.960 --> 0:08:14.880 them we're gonna talk and say we gotta prepare now, 0:08:14.920 --> 0:08:16.720 because if we don't, we're all going to die, or 0:08:17.160 --> 0:08:20.400 a significant number of people are going to die. Because 0:08:20.480 --> 0:08:23.920 if this asteroid hits a land mass, then it's gonna 0:08:24.000 --> 0:08:27.640 be like, depending on the size of the asteroid, it 0:08:27.640 --> 0:08:31.040 could be like the entire world's nuclear arsenal exploding in 0:08:31.040 --> 0:08:35.520 a single point. Um. If it hits the ocean, then 0:08:35.600 --> 0:08:41.440 it could generate a tsunami of unprecedented uh force that 0:08:41.520 --> 0:08:46.640 could wipe out an entire coast of a of a continent. Um. 0:08:46.679 --> 0:08:50.760 So I mean this is serious business. Uh. Fortunately, we 0:08:50.800 --> 0:08:54.600 haven't discovered anything so far that would cause that much 0:08:54.600 --> 0:08:57.440 of a problem. But again, our ability to detect these 0:08:57.480 --> 0:09:02.040 objects is limited. Most of the objects that NASA concentrates 0:09:02.040 --> 0:09:04.079 on is anything that's a higher and forty meters or 0:09:04.240 --> 0:09:07.640 across or larger. And uh. The problem is that smaller 0:09:07.679 --> 0:09:10.959 objects could cause significant harm. But finding those objects is 0:09:10.960 --> 0:09:15.600 a lot trickier because space is big. Really, Yeah, and 0:09:15.640 --> 0:09:19.920 in relation to space, fifty yard across asteroid or is nothing. 0:09:20.640 --> 0:09:25.360 It's it's you know, you you it's it's impossible to 0:09:25.400 --> 0:09:30.120 exaggerate how tiny that is. Yeah, it's like a it's 0:09:30.160 --> 0:09:34.480 like a germ on a bug. And and and you 0:09:34.559 --> 0:09:38.240 happen to be like a blue whale. That's kind of 0:09:38.760 --> 0:09:42.800 and even then that's not even close that Yeah, I 0:09:42.840 --> 0:09:44.960 can't get my mind around it. That's that's how it is. 0:09:45.000 --> 0:09:48.800 So so all right, So nuking a an asteroid directly 0:09:49.000 --> 0:09:51.679 as in trying to blow it up is not a 0:09:51.720 --> 0:09:55.840 feasible option. So let's let's assume for the moment that 0:09:55.880 --> 0:09:58.600 we have developed technology that helps us, that has improved 0:09:58.640 --> 0:10:02.000 our ability to detect asteroids to the point where any 0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:06.400 asteroid that could potentially cause significant harm to people on Earth, 0:10:06.440 --> 0:10:09.160 to life on Earth, that we have somehow managed to 0:10:09.160 --> 0:10:12.840 to create the technology to detect it. Yeah, all right, 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:14.880 and it's and it's important to do so because it 0:10:15.000 --> 0:10:18.439 is probable that we will be hit by something largish 0:10:18.640 --> 0:10:23.200 again at some point, essentially, like it's worthwhile to to 0:10:23.400 --> 0:10:27.040 develop this technology exactly. So yeah, the the risk might 0:10:27.080 --> 0:10:30.640 be low, but the impact would be huge. So you know, 0:10:30.679 --> 0:10:34.600 even taking a low risk perspective of it, the actual 0:10:34.640 --> 0:10:38.600 impact would be so enormous that it is a good argument, 0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:40.480 and a lot of people have made this argument to 0:10:41.200 --> 0:10:44.760 UM to invest in technology to help prevent it from happening. 0:10:45.120 --> 0:10:47.720 So let's assume that we have improved technology so we 0:10:47.760 --> 0:10:50.760 can actually detect these asteroids from a pretty good distance. 0:10:50.760 --> 0:10:52.920 Like I said, it might be years before they get here, 0:10:53.160 --> 0:10:54.959 or we're gonna need that time because we're gonna need 0:10:54.960 --> 0:10:59.959 that time to develop the actual vehicles that the tools 0:11:00.280 --> 0:11:03.120 that we're going to use in order to intercept that asteroid. 0:11:03.200 --> 0:11:07.400 So by intercepting it, what could we do to to 0:11:08.240 --> 0:11:12.559 avoid a collision. Well, the real key is deflecting the asteroid. 0:11:13.559 --> 0:11:16.160 You just have to move it a tiny bit, especially 0:11:16.160 --> 0:11:17.920 the further out you go. The further out you go, 0:11:18.000 --> 0:11:21.920 the tinier that that adjustment needs to be, because by 0:11:21.920 --> 0:11:24.240 the time it gets to the Earth, it's going to 0:11:24.280 --> 0:11:27.160 be the distance is going to be much more enormous. 0:11:27.520 --> 0:11:31.360 You know. Just think about like you're walking to have 0:11:31.440 --> 0:11:34.560 a friend standing across from you across a football field, 0:11:34.760 --> 0:11:38.240 and you're both facing each other exactly. Now, imagine that 0:11:38.280 --> 0:11:40.719 your friend just turns slightly a little bit to the 0:11:40.800 --> 0:11:44.400 left and starts walking forward. Well, from a distance, it 0:11:44.440 --> 0:11:48.040 looks like there that your friend may actually meet up 0:11:48.080 --> 0:11:50.040 with you once they get all the way across the 0:11:50.040 --> 0:11:52.520 football field. But as they continue, you see that they're 0:11:52.520 --> 0:11:56.040 getting further and further away until they reach essentially a 0:11:56.040 --> 0:11:59.560 point parallel to you, and they are a good distance 0:11:59.640 --> 0:12:02.360 from you right there, further down the field, like further 0:12:02.400 --> 0:12:03.959 to the right or to the left, whichever way that 0:12:04.120 --> 0:12:07.679 the person turned. Um, that's kind of the idea here 0:12:07.720 --> 0:12:09.600 is that if you can catch an asteroid early enough 0:12:09.920 --> 0:12:13.520 and deflect it just a couple of degrees. Then you've 0:12:13.559 --> 0:12:15.240 solved the problem because it's going to miss the Earth 0:12:15.280 --> 0:12:19.600 by millions of miles. But how do you deflect it? Well, 0:12:19.640 --> 0:12:23.280 there's a lot of different options. Yeah, I read uh 0:12:23.559 --> 0:12:27.600 too specifically, that seemed to be the options people are 0:12:27.640 --> 0:12:32.640 thinking of most what's that um One of them, ironically enough, 0:12:32.960 --> 0:12:36.840 was to use nuclear devices, but not to destroy, but 0:12:36.920 --> 0:12:39.079 to nudge. Right. Yeah, the idea is being that you 0:12:39.120 --> 0:12:43.120 would you would detonate the device over the asteroid. This 0:12:43.160 --> 0:12:46.800 would actually um cause a couple of things to happen, 0:12:47.160 --> 0:12:50.559 and it's you know, it's interesting that again that we're 0:12:50.559 --> 0:12:52.280 talking about something. You know, you might say, hey, you 0:12:52.360 --> 0:12:54.520 just said nuking is bad. Well, in this case, what 0:12:54.559 --> 0:12:57.679 would happen is that you would uh create an uh 0:12:58.000 --> 0:13:01.640 A nuclear radiation would create this this vaporizing energy and 0:13:01.800 --> 0:13:04.400 vaporize the surface or a section of the surface of 0:13:04.440 --> 0:13:08.160 the asteroid. Now that's going to cause that part of 0:13:08.160 --> 0:13:11.600 the surface to eject material into space. And you know, 0:13:11.640 --> 0:13:14.199 for a react action, there's an equal and opposite reaction, 0:13:14.280 --> 0:13:16.600 So that ejection from space is actually going to act 0:13:16.640 --> 0:13:21.480 as a pushing force on the asteroid and it's tiny, 0:13:21.520 --> 0:13:23.800 but that's all you need necessarily know, that might be 0:13:23.840 --> 0:13:25.959 all you need to move that asteroid out of the 0:13:26.000 --> 0:13:29.560 pathway of the Earth. So yeah, you, um you're just 0:13:29.679 --> 0:13:34.360 using it again to to give the asteroid a little push. Um. Actually, 0:13:34.400 --> 0:13:38.160 most of the the options I've seen are some variation 0:13:38.280 --> 0:13:41.680 on pushing the asteroid. It's just lots of different potential 0:13:41.679 --> 0:13:45.160 ways we could do that. Well, that's true. I did read, uh, Yeah, 0:13:45.200 --> 0:13:47.160 to be fair, I did read of the possibility of 0:13:47.240 --> 0:13:51.640 using an inert uh device, nothing that explodes, but basically 0:13:51.679 --> 0:13:56.280 a bullet if you will, to shove. Yeah, using using 0:13:56.360 --> 0:14:00.240 kinetic force to push the asteroid out of the way. Yeah, 0:14:00.240 --> 0:14:07.400 that is another potential UM solution, although it's it's again 0:14:07.480 --> 0:14:11.120 one of those that that has its own set of difficulties. 0:14:11.520 --> 0:14:14.280 But yeah, that's that is what I've also heard, where 0:14:14.280 --> 0:14:16.960 you're just using a kinetic force to to tap the 0:14:17.000 --> 0:14:20.360 asteroid out of the way. And it's it's important to 0:14:20.440 --> 0:14:25.400 note that. Um. What we really can't stress how much 0:14:25.640 --> 0:14:30.720 detection and identifying the the object path how important that is. 0:14:30.760 --> 0:14:34.680 Because um, there there's an effect called the Yarkovsky effect. 0:14:34.720 --> 0:14:38.760 Did you read about this, um as the object gets 0:14:38.760 --> 0:14:41.560 close to the Sun, closer to the Sun UM. And 0:14:41.600 --> 0:14:43.720 I'm not talking about directly on a path too, but 0:14:43.800 --> 0:14:46.080 you know, as it gets closer and closer to the 0:14:46.080 --> 0:14:48.040 Sun in the center of our solar system, it's going 0:14:48.080 --> 0:14:53.040 to heat up. UM. And for a larger object it 0:14:53.120 --> 0:14:58.080 doesn't matter so much UM. But according uh to an 0:14:58.160 --> 0:15:01.360 article that I um than in an article I read, 0:15:01.400 --> 0:15:05.560 the Arkovsky effect basically means that once the the object 0:15:05.640 --> 0:15:09.640 starts to heat up, the heat can affect its path. 0:15:10.240 --> 0:15:13.360 It can basically start it to move in a slightly 0:15:13.360 --> 0:15:16.080 different direction. So you need to be able to We 0:15:16.120 --> 0:15:18.960 would need to be able to know exactly where the 0:15:19.680 --> 0:15:23.960 or as least as close enough to uh, where the 0:15:24.040 --> 0:15:26.560 object is going to be, so that we can accurately 0:15:27.160 --> 0:15:28.760 hit it with something if we're going to try to 0:15:28.840 --> 0:15:32.360 use a brute force method of moving the the asteroid 0:15:32.360 --> 0:15:34.760 out of the way, And a lot of the attempts 0:15:34.760 --> 0:15:38.640 to move asteroids may depend upon sun, the sunlight and 0:15:39.000 --> 0:15:41.640 the Sun's power because um, there are a lot of 0:15:41.640 --> 0:15:44.440 different options that would harness the power of the Sun 0:15:44.480 --> 0:15:48.600 in order to create a pulling effect or pushing effect 0:15:49.120 --> 0:15:54.080 on the the asteroid. For example, there's one UM. One 0:15:54.400 --> 0:15:59.560 possible technique where we would coat the asteroid with white 0:15:59.760 --> 0:16:05.200 and dark coating like paint or dust or whatever, and 0:16:05.480 --> 0:16:09.560 that would uh cause it to move because the Sun's 0:16:09.640 --> 0:16:12.840 energy would actually push against the asteroid. And if we 0:16:13.000 --> 0:16:15.880 coded the rights the correct side, not the right side, 0:16:15.880 --> 0:16:18.400 I mean there's no real right or left, but the 0:16:18.480 --> 0:16:21.840 correct side of the asteroid, it could push the asteroid 0:16:22.120 --> 0:16:24.320 those couple of degrees. By the time it gets to 0:16:24.360 --> 0:16:26.400 where the Earth is, it's millions of miles away, you know, 0:16:26.400 --> 0:16:30.680 it's it's millions of miles off course from hitting the Earth. Um. Similarly, 0:16:31.680 --> 0:16:34.840 there were suggestions that maybe we could create a solar 0:16:34.880 --> 0:16:38.520 sale that would attach we we would use a like 0:16:38.560 --> 0:16:41.800 a probe to attach a solar sale to an asteroid, 0:16:41.800 --> 0:16:45.480 and the solar sale would catch the Sun's energy and 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:49.640 be propelled by the solar wind, essentially to pull the 0:16:49.680 --> 0:16:55.480 asteroid again outside of its pathway. UM. That that's kind 0:16:55.480 --> 0:16:58.000 of a far fetched one. Really, It's definitely a lot 0:16:58.040 --> 0:17:01.520 more challenging than say, coding an asteroid with a light 0:17:01.600 --> 0:17:05.600 colored material. UM. But then there's also the idea of 0:17:05.680 --> 0:17:10.040 using a net, an enormous net to encapsulate the the 0:17:10.200 --> 0:17:13.320 asteroid and the net would again act as almost like 0:17:13.320 --> 0:17:16.720 a solar sail. It would it would react against you know, 0:17:16.800 --> 0:17:19.360 the sun. The Sun's energy would push against the net, 0:17:19.400 --> 0:17:23.760 which again would alter the course of the asteroid. UM. 0:17:23.960 --> 0:17:29.479 Mirrors are another potential UH solution, where you you launch 0:17:29.760 --> 0:17:33.040 a device that is going to deploy mirrors around the 0:17:33.080 --> 0:17:36.800 asteroid to direct sunlight to specific points in the asteroid 0:17:36.800 --> 0:17:39.920 to again push it out of the way. Um. Well, 0:17:39.960 --> 0:17:42.600 everyone knows that asteroids are veins. If you, you know, 0:17:42.800 --> 0:17:44.520 put the mirrors on the far side of the Earth, 0:17:44.560 --> 0:17:47.159 they'll go toward the mirrors and go, oh, just my 0:17:47.200 --> 0:17:51.879 best side, I look good. Um. But then there are 0:17:51.920 --> 0:17:53.440 a couple of other elements. There are a couple of 0:17:53.480 --> 0:17:55.320 other ways of nudging an asteroid all the way that 0:17:55.400 --> 0:17:59.200 don't involve sunlight at all. Uh. And one of them, 0:17:59.400 --> 0:18:03.040 one of them's strapping a rocket to it. So essentially 0:18:03.080 --> 0:18:06.320 you have a UM, we have to land somebody on 0:18:06.359 --> 0:18:09.400 the asteroid. No, not necessarily, you'd have to have some 0:18:09.440 --> 0:18:16.840 sort of of remotely operated probe that could embed into 0:18:16.880 --> 0:18:21.119 the asteroid itself and then use um, have enough fuel 0:18:21.160 --> 0:18:24.560 in it to be able to push as a rocket 0:18:24.640 --> 0:18:26.720 to push the asteroid out of the way of the 0:18:26.760 --> 0:18:31.240 pathway of collision. Now it doesn't have to push very hard, 0:18:31.280 --> 0:18:33.080 it doesn't have to push for very long. Again, as 0:18:33.080 --> 0:18:35.520 long as you catch the asteroid early enough that we 0:18:35.560 --> 0:18:37.480 have to keep stressing that this is. This is assuming 0:18:37.520 --> 0:18:40.640 that we capture, that we detect the asteroid and years 0:18:40.640 --> 0:18:42.520 and years and years in advance, and that we're able 0:18:42.520 --> 0:18:44.720 to react quickly enough so that by the time the 0:18:44.720 --> 0:18:46.960 probe reaches the asteroid. Because you remember, this isn't gonna 0:18:46.960 --> 0:18:49.240 be overnight. It's gonna take time for the for whatever 0:18:49.280 --> 0:18:53.040 solution we deploy to get to the asteroid. Like it, 0:18:53.080 --> 0:18:55.000 maybe you know, we launched something and we don't know 0:18:55.040 --> 0:18:56.919 if it's going to work for another two years or 0:18:57.000 --> 0:18:59.440 three years. I mean, it's kind of scary to think about, 0:18:59.480 --> 0:19:04.240 but that's true. So um, yeah, you have to figure 0:19:04.240 --> 0:19:07.240 out away where you have this this device, and it 0:19:07.440 --> 0:19:09.000 has to be able to carry enough fuel so that 0:19:09.040 --> 0:19:12.320 it can actually deploy properly. A lot of people suggest 0:19:12.359 --> 0:19:14.560 that this kind of approach would be best if it 0:19:14.600 --> 0:19:17.520 were already space born. So in other words, we already 0:19:17.520 --> 0:19:22.000 had some sort of launching platform in space, so that 0:19:22.359 --> 0:19:26.680 the uh, the individual probes would not need so much 0:19:26.720 --> 0:19:29.479 fuel to both escape the arts gravity and land on 0:19:29.520 --> 0:19:33.399 an asteroid and then propel it away. Um. That that 0:19:33.520 --> 0:19:36.600 does prose a problem. But then another one is the 0:19:36.720 --> 0:19:40.840 gravity tractor. Ah, yes, and I when I looked up 0:19:40.880 --> 0:19:43.760 the gravity tractor, I had to check just a moment ago. 0:19:43.880 --> 0:19:47.960 And yes, someone has named their band gravity Tractor. Good 0:19:47.960 --> 0:19:53.760 for them, Yeah, lead singer John Dear, nice, thank you. Um, 0:19:54.040 --> 0:19:59.400 but yeah, the gravity tractor is fascinating, um, because this 0:19:59.600 --> 0:20:04.760 is essentially using a different body and the gravity of 0:20:04.800 --> 0:20:08.119 another body and body that we would launch into space 0:20:08.680 --> 0:20:12.560 to pull the asteroid away without even I mean it's 0:20:12.560 --> 0:20:15.080 not the point here is not even a touch the asteroid. 0:20:15.119 --> 0:20:18.680 It's to get something near enough to it to affect 0:20:19.280 --> 0:20:22.760 um the asteroids path with another gravitational field, right, Because 0:20:22.800 --> 0:20:26.960 you gotta remember everything in the universe exerts a gravitational 0:20:27.000 --> 0:20:30.040 pull on everything else. It's just that that poll is 0:20:30.080 --> 0:20:33.399 dependent upon distance and mass and lots of other stuff. 0:20:33.880 --> 0:20:35.960 But they you know, so if you were able to 0:20:36.000 --> 0:20:39.359 put a massive enough object close enough to the asteroid, 0:20:39.600 --> 0:20:41.760 you could alter its pathway. There is there are some 0:20:41.800 --> 0:20:46.240 problems with the gravity tractor, really, Yeah. One of them 0:20:46.320 --> 0:20:47.840 is that you have to figure out all a. Well, 0:20:48.640 --> 0:20:51.560 you want the gravity tractor to pull the asteroid away 0:20:51.600 --> 0:20:53.359 from the path of collision. You don't want the asteroid 0:20:53.400 --> 0:20:56.160 to pull the gravity tractor into the path of collision. 0:20:56.640 --> 0:20:59.040 So so that means that you would have to have 0:20:59.080 --> 0:21:02.120 some sort of propole sustion system aboard the gravity tractor 0:21:02.480 --> 0:21:06.760 to make little course corrections and continue to gently pull 0:21:06.840 --> 0:21:09.800 the asteroid out of its pathway. Well, if you have propulsion, 0:21:09.960 --> 0:21:12.560 then there's the possibility of that propulsion that you're going 0:21:12.600 --> 0:21:16.399 to when you fire your rockets to to give it 0:21:16.400 --> 0:21:19.920 a boost, that force may push against the asteroid, thus 0:21:20.000 --> 0:21:23.240 negating the gravity pull that you are exerting upon it. 0:21:23.320 --> 0:21:28.399 So essentially you're getting a net zero result because that 0:21:28.560 --> 0:21:30.639 you're you're pulling on it with gravity, but you're pushing 0:21:30.640 --> 0:21:33.240 on it with your propulsion system. So finding a way 0:21:33.240 --> 0:21:37.320 where you could create some sort of gravity tractor where 0:21:37.720 --> 0:21:41.720 the propulsion system would not actually push against the asteroid 0:21:41.760 --> 0:21:44.879 itself is would be part of the solution. Plus this 0:21:44.880 --> 0:21:47.879 would be really really expensive. It's a much more costly 0:21:48.359 --> 0:21:52.960 approach and not necessarily uh the most easy to implement 0:21:53.440 --> 0:21:56.880 compared to other approaches. So I don't know that this 0:21:56.920 --> 0:22:00.640 is necessarily likely to happen. I mean, if if enough 0:22:00.640 --> 0:22:02.520 research goes into it where it proves that this is 0:22:02.560 --> 0:22:07.520 the most effective way, then sure I can see it happening, 0:22:07.560 --> 0:22:09.679 just because people would finally say, all right, well, you know, 0:22:09.720 --> 0:22:12.919 we have to invest in it, because we can't. We 0:22:12.960 --> 0:22:17.919 can't just play roulette all our existence. We have to 0:22:17.960 --> 0:22:21.080 prepare for this. But I would imagine that we'd probably 0:22:21.080 --> 0:22:26.000 go with some other route before we tried this one. Yeah. 0:22:26.600 --> 0:22:29.879 An article I read suggested that the the gravity tractor 0:22:29.920 --> 0:22:34.320 would have to be at least uh twenty tons in 0:22:34.400 --> 0:22:38.600 order to safely to you know, effectively to I should say, 0:22:38.640 --> 0:22:43.520 not safely effectively to and an asteroid away from the Earth. Um, 0:22:43.600 --> 0:22:47.600 and I can't you know, I just imagine that's going 0:22:47.640 --> 0:22:50.680 to be very hard to get out of the Earth's orbit. 0:22:51.200 --> 0:22:52.960 I mean, you know, our gravity. I'm sorry to leave 0:22:52.960 --> 0:22:55.080 the gravitational field of the Earth to launch something that 0:22:55.160 --> 0:22:58.760 big in the space. But you know, I'm not a 0:22:58.880 --> 0:23:03.360 rocket scientist, so nor are you a brain surgeon. Now 0:23:03.760 --> 0:23:07.040 I'm not a rocket surgeon either, so um, well that's good. 0:23:07.960 --> 0:23:10.480 I can just imagine that going wrong. So I've got 0:23:10.480 --> 0:23:15.760 another another potential, although it's far fetched possibility of getting 0:23:15.840 --> 0:23:18.119 rid of an asteroid that um that's coming at you. 0:23:19.520 --> 0:23:23.640 You let robots eat it. Really, Yeah, that's Robert Lamb 0:23:23.680 --> 0:23:26.119 actually wrote about this. He has a great article on 0:23:27.000 --> 0:23:31.040 the Our Our Discovery news site called top ten ways 0:23:31.080 --> 0:23:33.920 to stop an asteroid, and one of them is talking 0:23:34.000 --> 0:23:39.040 about using them robots that would actually essentially kind of 0:23:39.119 --> 0:23:43.560