How to Deflect a Killer Asteroid
Summary
If an asteroid is predicted to hit the earth, how could it be affected in such a way so that the path of asteroid on this collision course could be deflected away? If one has ten year’s advance notice that an asteroid is on a collision course with earth, scientists can set off an explosion close to the asteroid, but not quite on it, and maximize the radiation from the explosion, this would deflect it a few centimeters per second in velocity.
But would a change in speed of a few centimeters per second be enough to save the world? The minimum safe distance the scientists came up with is 6,000 km – the earth’s approximate radius. With the advance warning of ten years, an increase in the speed of the asteroid by a couple of centimeters per second would save the planet.
Related Video 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-ReuLZ2quc
Related Video 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcqFy1zjdys
Keywords: killer asteroid, Armageddon, space collision
