Huge asteroid that 'could end human life' defying gravity as it moves towards Earth

[Jesse]

Source: Huge asteroid that 'could end human life' defying gravity as it moves towards Earth, scientists say

Scientists have moved closer to being able to stop a huge asteroid colliding with the Earth and potentially wiping out human life.

Researchers at the University of Tennessee have discovered that blowing the space rock up could make the collision worse by causing several devastating impacts.

Instead, small changes could be made to its surface to disrupt the forces keeping it together and cause it to break up in outer space.

They were studying asteroid 1950 DA, which first became infamous in 2002 when astronomers estimated it had a one in 300 chance of hitting the planet on 16 March, 2880. However, the odds of a collision were later revised to a more reassuring one in 4,000.

The asteroid has a diameter of one kilometre and is travelling at nine miles a second relative to the Earth, which it would hit at 38,000 miles per hour.

The impact would have a force of around 44,800 megatonnes of TNT and cause a huge explosion, tsunamis and change the climate of the globe, devastating human life.

But with 35 generations to go until its possible arrival, scientists are confident that the disaster can be averted.

The University of Tennessee researchers said 1950 DA is rotating so quickly it “defies gravity” and is held together by cohesive forces, called van der Waals, never before detected on an asteroid.

The findings, published in the science journal Nature, could prompt a change in tactics defending our planet.

Previous research has shown that asteroids are loose piles of rubble held together by gravity and friction but by calculating 1950 DA’s thermal inertia and bulk density, the team detected the action of cohesive forces that stop it breaking up.

Ben Rozitis, a postdoctoral researcher, said if only gravity were holding it together, the spinning would cause it to fly apart.

The rotation is so fast that at its equator, 1950 DA effectively experiences negative gravity and if an astronaut were to attempt to stand on the surface, he or she would be thrown off into space.

The presence of cohesive forces has been predicted in small asteroids but definitive evidence has never been seen before.

“Following the February 2013 asteroid impact in Chelyabinsk, Russia, there is renewed interest in figuring out how to deal with the potential hazard of an asteroid impact,” Dr Rozitis said.

“Understanding what holds these asteroids together can inform strategies to guard against future impacts.”

An estimated 1,500 people were injured when an undetected meteor exploded over the city of Chelyabinsk, releasing more than 30 times the explosive energy of the Hiroshima bomb.

It ripped through the atmosphere at 19 kilometres per second and was equivalent to between 500,000 and 600,000 tons of TNT, scientists found.

People directly under the flight of the meteor were knocked off their feet and many others suffered sunburn or eye damage as they looked at the intense fireball.

A shockwave following the impact knocked out thousands of windows and destroyed parts of buildings, injuring anyone nearby with flying debris.

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Get your affairs in order people. You are all gonna die on 16 March, 2880.

[Cow Poke]

Get your affairs in order people. You are all gonna die on 16 March, 2880.

Thanks! Now I lay awake at nights worrying about this.

[klaus54]

Good!

The world needs a good ol' mass extinction.

K54

[Jedidiah]

Get your affairs in order people. You are all gonna die on 16 March, 2880.

Maybe.

[tabibito]

You reckon we should stick around to watch?

[klaus54]

Source: Huge asteroid that 'could end human life' defying gravity as it moves towards Earth, scientists say

...
The University of Tennessee researchers said 1950 DA is rotating so quickly it “defies gravity” and is held together by cohesive forces, called van der Waals, never before detected on an asteroid....

Source

© Copyright Original Source

???

[Cow Poke]

Source: Huge asteroid that 'could end human life' defying gravity as it moves towards Earth, scientists say

...
The University of Tennessee researchers said 1950 DA is rotating so quickly it “defies gravity” and is held together by cohesive forces, called van der Waals, never before detected on an asteroid....

Source

© Copyright Original Source

???

Magic!

[klaus54]

Magic!

Yep. Either that or 2) Journalistic license from misapprehension or 3) Science Falsely-So-Called.

K54

[tabibito]

Scientists suggest that asteroids are usually made of loose masses of rubble, which are held together by friction and gravity. The researchers say that the 1950 DA is spinning so fast that it is defying the laws of friction and gravity. The scientists also examined the thermal images as well as the orbital drift of the asteroid to find its bulk density and thermal inertia.

"We found that 1950 DA is rotating faster than the breakup limit for its density," says Ben Rozitis, an astronomer at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. "So if just gravity were holding this rubble pile together, as is generally assumed, it would fly apart. Therefore, interparticle cohesive forces must be holding it together."

Interparticle Cohesive Forces makes a fascinating read.

[rwatts]

Interparticle Cohesive Forces makes a fascinating read.

This is one of the proofs that the theory of Intelligent Falling is a better description of aspects of nature than are Newton's and Einstein's theories of gravity.

[klaus54]

The thing must be made of nano-scale particles.

Doesn't scare me...

K54

[TimelessTheist]

Thanks! Now I lay awake at nights worrying about this.

We should probably be a little worried about it though, since it could potentially destroy Earth.....or rather, it has a 1 in 4000 chance to hit Earth....okay, maybe we shouldn't be that worried about it, but still.

[Sparko]

I never understood the idea that blowing up an asteroid would cause more damage because it would break up. Presumably it would break up into much smaller pieces that would mostly burn up in the atmosphere, instead of one giant rock that detonates like a huge nuclear bomb.

[Roy]

I never understood the idea that blowing up an asteroid would cause more damage because it would break up. Presumably it would break up into much smaller pieces that would mostly burn up in the atmosphere, instead of one giant rock that detonates like a huge nuclear bomb.

Consider why the military employ(ed) shrapnel instead of solid shells, cluster bombs instead of single bombs, and grapeshot rather than cannonballs.

Roy

[Sparko]

Consider why the military employ(ed) shrapnel instead of solid shells, cluster bombs instead of single bombs, and grapeshot rather than cannonballs.

Roy

Yeah but would you rather be hit by some shrapnel or a nuclear bomb that could destroy all life on the planet?

I would also think that smaller pieces would have a much greater chance of just burning up in the atmosphere, like most meteors do.