Asteroids and comets can pose a threat to Earth if their orbits get too close. As NASA’s DART mission has shown, using a spacecraft to collide with an asteroid is one way to change its course, but it requires a significant amount of time and resources.
According to an alternative approach, X-rays from a nuclear explosion could rapidly heat the surface of the asteroid, causing it to vaporize and change direction. Scientists have conducted experiments on two model asteroids and found that the X-ray pulses create a vapor cloud that transfers momentum and changes the objects’ speed.
In the future, scientists plan to examine other materials and structures to test this technology more accurately.
Source: Ferra
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