Everybody knows the best method acting of manage with dangerous asteroid — it ’s promise Bruce Willis . But what if said asteroid was n’t on a collision path with us and we wanted to study , rather than explode , it ? A team of Taiwanese research worker may have the solution .
A squad from Tsinghua University in Beijing , lead by Hexi Baoyin , need to capture a passing Near Earth Object in a shallow orbit around the satellite where it can be studied — and mined — for a couple of years before it escapes Earth ’s gravity well . To actually catch the NEO , the team state that somewhat nudging it ’s flight would be enough to move it into orbit .
The mind for this scheme originated from reflexion of Jupiter , which has previously been seen capturing smaller bodies for age at a time , though they too eventually escape the gasolene giant ’s gravitative clutches and are discard back into space .
The most likely candidate for nudging is 10 - m 2008EA9 . It will pass by Earth in 2049 and could theoretically be pulled into eye socket by reduce its focal ratio by a mere 410 m/s .
And hey , 10 - beat wide asteroid ( at least the stony variety)tend to break off up in the atmosphere . run to . [ Technology ReviewviaPopular Science – CSM ]
you may keep up with Andrew Tarantola , the author of this post , onTwitter , Facebook , orGoogle+ .
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