Plans to save the Earth from an asteroid impact

If an asteroid would land on Earth the impact would have the force of almost 110,000 Hiroshima atomic bombs and it seems this asteroid actually exists and it will hit our planet in 2036 (Mary D’Souza, a PhD student with the University of Queensland’s School of Engineering). 2036 sounds like a lot of time for scientists to develop some kind of “defense” but is there a viable solution?

Not beeing scared by the idea of global annihilation, Ms D’Souza started working on a possible solution and she already won the top prize in an international competition to find  ways of stopping asteroids from hitting our planet.

Her idea consists of using enhanced solar radiation pressure to move the threatening asteroid off its path to Earth by wrapping it with Mylar film, “a step up from Kevlar”, she stated. This “foil” or solar reflecting material is already used on satellites who could also do the wrapping: “I’m using a satellite that’s orbiting the asteroid and the rotation of the asteroid itself to wrap this ribbon, so it’s kind of like it wraps as it rotates.”

The Mylar film will cover almost 50 percent of the asteroid and this will change its surface from dull to reflective and by doing so it will absorb power from the sun: “What happens then is light from the sun shines on the body (of the asteroid) so more of it is reflected … and it actually acts to move it away from the sun and the Earth.”

The asteroid has 330 metres in diameter, only a fraction of the 10km wide asteroid which some scientists say caused the weather event which also led to the extinction of the dinosaurs: “It’s kind of like a very, very, bad day for Earth.”

“If this one were to hit the earth, you could say that most of life would be extinguished,” Ms D’Souza said.

Someone should send word to Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck to stay in shape , we gonnna need’em again for sure !!

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