How to Use Nuclear Bombs for Asteroid Deflection

Lawrence Livermore National Lab has a new tool toA improves our understanding of the nuclear deflection’s radiation interactions on the asteroid’s surface while opening the door to new research on the shockwave dynamics affecting the inner asteroid. The paper introduces an efficient and accurate library of X-ray energy deposition functions, developed using the Kull radiation-hydrodynamics …

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NASA’s First-Ever Planetary Defense Test

NASA’s DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) targeted the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos, a small body just 530 feet (160 meters) in diameter. It orbits a larger, 2,560-foot (780-meter) asteroid called Didymos. Neither asteroid poses a threat to Earth. The mission’s one-way trip confirmed NASA can successfully navigate a spacecraft to intentionally collide with an asteroid to …

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Volcanoes Eruptions Had Small Effects Before an Asteroid Killed Dinosaurs

Yale researchers have determined that the asteroid was the main cause of the death of dinosaurs. Massive volcanic eruptions in India in the region known as the Deccan Traps happened well before the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event 66 million years ago and therefore did not contribute to the mass extinction. They pinpointed the timing of volcanic …

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Carnival of Space 629

The Carnival of Space 629 is up at Universe Today. Universe Today – Europe and US are Going to Try and Deflect an Asteroid The three-day International AIDA Workshop, which ran from Sept. 11th to 13th, focused on the development of the joint NASA-ESA Asteroid Impact Deflection Assessment (AIDA) mission. The purpose of this two-spacecraft …

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NASA New Horizons Had a Successful Flyby Mission 4 Billion Miles Away

New Horizons’ high-resolution Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) provided the best indication of Ultima Thule’s size and shape so far. Preliminary measurements of this Kuiper Belt object suggest it is approximately 20 miles long by 10 miles wide (32 kilometers by 16 kilometers). An artist’s impression at right illustrates one possible appearance of Ultima Thule, based …

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NASA will test impacting an asteroid to measure deflection technique

The first-ever mission to demonstrate an asteroid deflection technique for planetary defense — the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) — is moving from concept development to preliminary design phase. Artist concept of NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft. DART, which is moving to preliminary design phase, would be NASA’s first mission to demonstrate an …

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F-22 getting stealth and weapons upgrades

Lockheed Martin and the United States Air Force have been working on improving the performance of the F-22 Raptor’s stealth coatings. While the Raptor is by far the most capable air superiority fighter ever built, its Achilles’ Heel since it entered service has been maintenance. The F-22’s sensitive radar absorbent coatings have proven to be …

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New Hearable Wearables predicted to be over $15 billion market by 2020

Samsung just introduced hearable wearables devices will at least get a mass-market introduction. Hearables will help people of normal hearing by enhancing their ability to hear in the presence of noise. WiFore Consulting predicts that hearables will be the fastest growing wearable market, exploding upward to over $16 billion by 2020. The reason is that …

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