The solar system is filled with asteroids and comets left over from the formation of planets. And although most of them are quite small and do not exceed grains of sand or a small stone in size, there are also truly dangerous "neighbors" that reach several meters or even kilometers in size. And, perhaps, in the future there will be a fateful meeting of such space "aliens" with the Earth (as it has already happened more than once in history).
Small chunks of spent rockets cross the sky and blaze like meteors before finally burning up in the atmosphere. But large space "guests" can overcome this fiery path and eventually collide with the surface of the Earth, where they will not do much harm, and then they will be picked up by collectors of meteorites and various scientists (who greatly appreciate such gifts from heaven).
Meanwhile, researchers (and ordinary people) have long worried that potentially dangerous huge asteroids could visit the Earth. Moving at a speed of tens of kilometers per second, they can cause incredible harm to our planet and provoke new mass extinctions.
Today, the scientific world knows very well how destructive a huge meteorite falling to Earth can be (and the Chelyabinsk meteorite reminded all other inhabitants of the Earth). According to one of the versions, dinosaurs began to die out when an asteroid about ten kilometers in size crashed into the Yucatan Peninsula about 65 million years ago.
In this regard, one of the topics of the recent meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) was devoted to preparations for protecting the planet from such a scenario. The plan includes measures to create a so-called "observation post" and an interceptor apparatus.
But researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center are worried about the time it will take to build a reliable rocket, from design to launch. This takes about five years.
People are the first creatures who managed to establish a daily study of near space and estimate (at least approximately) how many objects dangerous for us are hiding in the dark.
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Large objects today are easier to detect, therefore, and have time to take at least some measures (to evacuate residents of areas prone to space danger). In addition, the researchers believe that most of the dangerous bulky space objects that pose a threat to the Earth, they have already found (there are more than 15 thousand).
Smaller "aliens" are naturally more difficult to detect, so they often unexpectedly hit the planet for us.
The question arises: a person can detect a threat, but can he really resist it today? If there are fans of sci-fi films among our readers, they will certainly immediately present a team of drillers led by a hero (similar, of course, to Bruce Willis), who are sent to explode the unfortunate asteroid to the songs of the Aerosmith group. But, as always, real science is always somewhat more complex than the plots of Hollywood films.
Experts say that blowing up a comet or asteroid (as was done in the movie "Armageddon") is not a good idea, since the resulting smaller fragments will continue to threaten the Earth. In this case, the end of all life on the planet (no matter how frightening it may sound) would come not due to one big explosion, but due to the whole "rain of fire".
NASA experts abandoned this idea, carefully substantiating everything in a 2007 report (PDF format).
The real weapon that will help humanity prevent such an end of the world is time. For example, a recent proposal by scientists - to create a patrol spacecraft that will seek to warn of a threat as early as possible, and an interceptor rocket ready to fly - looks much more realistic and effective. However, it will take several years before they are developed and put into operation. What if we don't have this time?
The researchers say that humans could also try to push the asteroid slightly off its intended course so that it passes Earth. For this purpose, it is proposed to use small rocket boosters that could be delivered to the surface of the asteroid. In addition, there is an idea to use powerful laser beams for the same purpose.
If there is very little time, experts argue, it will be possible to use "kinetic weapons", which in fact will give the asteroid a notable "kick" with the help of a high-speed rocket - "cannonball". She can lead the unexpected guest astray.
So far, all the ideas voiced are just assumptions about how to act in this situation. And humanity today does not have any technologies to implement such scenarios. There are no missiles that will be ready to launch at any moment to respond to a threat, nor any other similar apparatus. Not even a driller who looks like Bruce Willis, experts joke.
So far, only telescopes allow scientists to peer into the darkness and detect potential cosmic threats to our existence. So, according to experts, humanity should start creating tools that can be used in the event of a real threat.
