X-rays May Help Divert Hazardous Asteroids Heading toward Earth

Asteroids pose a serious threat to Earth, as history has shown – just ask the dinosaurs. Scientists at Sandia National Laboratories have now demonstrated a potential method for diverting a dangerous asteroid using X-rays.

NASA’s Current Defense Measures

NASA has already taken proactive steps to protect the planet. The Sentry mission monitors near-Earth asteroids and assesses their likelihood of impact. With enough warning, intervention may be possible. In 2022, NASA’s DART mission successfully altered the trajectory of an asteroid by crashing a spacecraft into it. However, this method is costly and requires advanced notice.

Sandia’s Efficient X-ray Deflection Approach

Sandia researchers have now tested a more efficient and faster alternative. By triggering a nuclear explosion near an asteroid, the surface would heat up rapidly, creating vapor jets that could nudge it off course. In lab experiments, the team simulated this by blasting small asteroid-like samples (quartz and fused silica) with soft X-rays, using Sandia’s Z machine. The X-rays heated the samples, sending them into steady motion, with velocities reaching around 70 meters per second.

Real-World Applications and Catastrophic Potential

The team then scaled these findings to real-world asteroid scenarios, showing that this technique could work on asteroids up to 4 km (2.5 miles) in size – large enough to cause catastrophic damage.

For context, a 10-km-wide asteroid hit Earth 65 million years ago, wiping out 75% of all life, including the dinosaurs. Even smaller asteroids, like the 20-meter meteor that exploded over Chelyabinsk in 2013, can cause significant destruction, injuring over 1,500 people and damaging thousands of buildings.

Future Research for Enhanced Planetary Defense

Preventing an asteroid impact is crucial, and adding nuclear options to our planetary defense strategies could one day save humanity. Future experiments by the Sandia team will focus on different asteroid compositions, including sandy, rocky, and porous materials, to refine this promising deflection method.

Read the original Article: New Atlas

Read more: How Supermassive Fuel-Hungry Black Holes Feed off Intergalactic Gas