Astronomers want to drop asteroids into a collision course with Earth



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The prospect of an asteroid on our planet does not seem like an ideal scenario, but some scientists think it's a good idea.

This would allow us to trap the above-mentioned space rock and bring it to Earth to probe for extraterrestrial life, astronomers said.

We might even be able to exploit it for valuable minerals and make money from the entire company.

Astronomers at the University of Glasgow have published a new study explaining why "aerial spraying" an incoming asteroid would be a good idea.

Scientists believe they could "aerobrush" an asteroid and capture it (Image: Getty)

"To ensure that candidate asteroids do not pose a risk of impact during aerobic exercise, an initial aerobics risk analysis is performed and only asteroids with a diameter of less than 30 m are considered candidates in this article. They explain.

"A Lambert arc in the two-body Sun-asteroid problem is used as the initial estimate for the Earth-to-Earth transfer path, and then an overall optimization is performed, using the total transfer cost and mass ratio. asteroids recovered (due to the ablation)) as objective functions.

What this second part means is that they can use Earth's atmosphere as resistance to slow the speed of a large piece of rock and then bring them into orbit where they can be studied and exploited.

This graphic image provided by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) shows the asteroid and asteroid explorer Hayabusa2. The Japanese space explorer who will try to blow up a crater in an asteroid and bring back samples of the interior is approaching its destination after a trip of three and a half years. (JAXA via AP)

The trick will be to find asteroids of the right size. Smaller pieces hit the Earth every day but are burned by the power of our atmosphere. But if the rock is too big … well, say so: someone will be on the phone with Bruce Willis pronto.

However, astronomers say that the whole process will involve an unmanned spaceship meeting with the asteroid long before it is close to Earth. The gear would be able to apply just enough force to move the vector of the incoming rock.

It would be a bit like a tug guiding a bigger gear in the harbor.

We are not quite sure it's a good idea

Researchers have in mind a specific asteroid for this project: 2005 VL1. They say it has the right size and speed for the proposed mission – but we are not sure whether NASA or SpaceX will do this in the near future.

Bruce Willis was not available to comment.

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