Scientists simulate successful nuclear explosion of an asteroid in the laboratory

Scientists simulate successful nuclear explosion of an asteroid in the laboratory

A break in X -rays through a nuclear explosion could be enough to protect the earth from an approaching asteroid. This results from the results of a first -time experiment.

The results published on September 23, according to Dawn Graninger, physicist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, show "really amazing direct experimental evidence of how effective this technology can be". "It's very impressive work."

Nathan Moore, a physicist at the Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and his team designed the experiment to simulate what could happen if an atomic bomb is detonated near an asteroid. So far, scientists have examined the dynamics of the pressure wave of a bomb that arises from the expansion of gas and presses against an asteroid. However, Moore and his team believe that the large amount of X -rays that is generated during the explosion could have a greater effect on the change in the trajectory of an asteroid.

The team used the enormous Z-machine from Sandia, which uses magnetic fields to create high temperatures and powerful X-rays. They fired X -rays on two test keys that were about the size of coffee beans. "About 80 trillion watt electricity flow through the machine for about 100 billionths of seconds," says Moore. "This intensive electrical cargo compresses Argongas into a very hot plasma with temperatures of millions of degrees from which a bubble of X -rays arises."

The two test buttones had a diameter of about 12 millimeters and consisted of quartz and silica lag to reflect on various compositions of asteroids in the solar system. Everyone was hung in a vacuum on a thin film. When the X -ray bladder hit, she cut the film like with scissors and put the asteroids into a free fall. As a result, the actual effect of the X -rays could be observed under conditions that resemble the vacuum of space. "It's completely new," says Graninger. "I never heard that something like this was done before."

The results of the experiment, which only lasted 20 millionth seconds, showed that the quartz and silica samples were accelerated to 69.5 meters per second and 70.3 meters per second before evaporating. The cause of the acceleration was the X -rays that evaporated the surface of the asteroids and thus generated a thrust when the gas expanded from their surfaces.

Moore says that the results show that the technology could be scaled up on much larger asteroids, which measure about 4 kilometers in diameter, to distract them from a collision course with the earth. "In particular, we are interested in the greatest asteroids with a short war," he says. In these cases, other approaches, such as ramming a spacecraft into an asteroid - as was carried out at Nasas Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or darts, "not enough energy in 2022 - not to have enough energy to dissuade it from the course".

Mary Burkey, physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, describes the study as "one of the first major blockbuster publications that try to find out how we can recreate a nuclear distraction of a asteroid". It emphasizes that other experiments examine the possibility of also using meteorite samples to simulate the composition of asteroids more precisely. "The planet protection has a lot more time in the spotlight," she says.

Moore hopes to carry out further experimental tests from X-rays to be reeled technology in order to refine their effectiveness. One day a test could also take place in space, similar to the dart mission, to observe the effect on a real asteroid. "There is nothing that prevents us from doing so, apart from the will to do it," he says.

1. Moore, N. W. et al. Nature phys. https://doi.org/10.1038/S41567-02633-7 (2024).

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