Dr. Noah Brosh
Direct link to this page: https://www.hayadan.org.il/neo040803.html
Since the establishment of the Israeli information center for NEOs = Near Earth Objects, we have received several questions from readers that can be summed up in the sentence: 'And if such an object is discovered, what do we do?'. An answer to this question, in several, partial versions, was given in the disaster films in which an asteroid hits the earth. But we will see, because it is not clear how a nuclear bomb can work in a vacuum. In order to eliminate the danger to the Earth from a giant asteroid impact, the heroes of the movie 'Armageddon', for example, led by Bruce Willis, work to detonate a nuclear bomb in the depths of the asteroid. The explosion splits the asteroid into pieces that pass on either side of Earth, without causing widespread global damage. The conduct of the destructive explosion is done as follows: the explosion releases a huge amount of energy, in the radiation of light into the particles. These are swallowed by the "walls" of the space within which the explosion takes place (the asteroid stone) and cause rapid heating of its outer layer.
The heated layer evaporates, creating a very large amount of hot gas that exerts pressure on the walls, and explodes the asteroid. The pressure component of the initial radiation, which comes out of the explosion, also works in this process. Without making an exact calculation, it is difficult to estimate what
will have its share - relative to the gas pressure created by the evaporation of the walls. All this prevents me from needing the atmosphere at all, to transfer the energy of the explosion to break up the asteroid.
In order to evaluate various defense methods against an asteroid or comet that may collide with the Earth in the future, a scientific conference called the "Planetary Defense Conference" is being organized, scheduled for the end of February 2004. Various ideas will be presented to eradicate one of the three possible dangers, which the organizers have chosen as representative the different options. The three options are a basis for the data, so that the conference participants can plan appropriate eradication scenarios that can also be compared between them. The three options are called "the three musketeers" - Athos, Porthos and Aramis. * Athos is a small imaginary asteroid, with a diameter of about 200 meters, which, according to the scenario, could hit on February 26, 2016 in the Pacific Ocean - about 300 km from the coast of California.
* Porthos is an imaginary nucleus of a comet, similar to Comet Halley. Dimensions, in km: 4x4x8. According to the script, it is going to hit on June 18, 2010 in the Mississippi Valley in the USA.
* Aramis is an asteroid - a collection of stone and rock bodies from its dimensions
About five km. According to the imaginary scenario, it is going to hit on May 13, 2033, about a hundred kilometers east of India, in the waters of the ocean. The measures to eradicate the danger, which the participants of the conference can propose, are not limited. To focus on the practical solutions, the bidders must submit a preliminary price estimate for the execution. This is therefore the first serious step, on a global scale, to try to provide a (theoretical), organized solution to the problem of asteroids that threaten the Earth.
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