Threats From Neos

8/14/2019 Threats From Neos

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THREATS FROMNEOs

By :MODERN PUBLIC SCHOOL,

Shalimar bagh,Delhi-88.


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A near-Earth object (NEO) is a Solar System objectwhose orbit brings it into close proximity with the

Earth.

TYPES

Near Earth Asteroid

Near Earth Comet

Near Earth Meteoroid


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PAST EVENTS AND IMPACTS

The Mesozoic Era :-An asteroid six miles in diameter pummeled Earth in the western Gulf ofMexico. Enormous mile-high waves flooded continents. For monthsthereafter, a curtain of darkness prevailed over Earth. Not only were the

dinosaurs wiped out but 90% of land life.

1908 Tunguska Event:-It is now commonly believed that on 30 June 1908 a stony asteroid exploded over Tunguska. Theexplosion occurred at a height of 8.5 kilometers. The object that caused the explosion has beenestimated to have had a diameter of 45-70 meters.

2002 Eastern Mediterranean event :-On June 6, 2002 an object with an estimated diameter of 10 meters collided with Earth over theMediterranean Sea and exploded in mid-air. The energy released was estimated to be equivalent to 26kilotons of TNT.

2008 Sudan event :-A small Near-Earth asteroid 2008 TC3 entered Earth's atmosphere as a meteor above northern Sudan at avelocity of 12.8 kilometers per second.


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A recently rediscovered 400-meter Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA) is

predicted to pass near the Earth on 13 April 2029.

At a scientific conference dedicated to asteroid and comet security inthe Practical Astronomy Institute in St. Petersburg, one of theparticipants said that the 2004 MN4 asteroid could hit Earth in 2035,

wiping out all life on the planet.

Asteroid Apophis, will impact the earth in 2036.

On December 12, 2012 the Asteroid Toutatis will be 0.04633

A.U. away from Earth. The plane of Toutatis' orbit is closerto the plane of the Earth's orbit than any known Earth-orbit-crossing asteroid. In December 1992, Toutatis made aclose approach to Earth.


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There is a planet that orbits our sun every 3600 years. Thisplanet has been referred to as Planet X. It gets its name frombeing an elusive planet. The first real pictures Planet X were

photographed shortly after January 26, 1983, when NASAlaunched the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS). Theastronomers calculated that Planet X was over 50 million

miles away from us at that time. In 2004 Planet X wasdetermined to be only 7 million miles away. It's movingcloser. Confirmation of the tenth planet "Planet X" was

photographed n in Japan on February 28, 2008. Planet Xexists, and it will be here by the end of 2012. Planet X willappear as two suns in the sky to us, no later than 2011.


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Strategies fall into three basic sets: destruction,delay and deflection.

Destruction concentrates on rendering the

impactor harmless by fragmenting it and scatteringthe fragments so that they miss the Earth or burn upin the atmosphere.

Delay exploits the fact that both the Earth and the

impactor are in orbit. Delaying, or advancing theim actor's arrival de endin on the exact eometr


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Kinetic ImpactAn alternative means of deflecting an asteroid is to attempt to

directly alter its momentum by sending a spacecraft to collide with

the asteroid.

Asteroid gravitational tractor

Here we use a large heavy unmanned spacecraft hovering over anasteroid to gravitationally pull the latter into a non-threatening orbit.

Using the power of sun In this, we focus the Sun's rays onto a point on the surface on

an asteroid. The spot where the Sun's rays met would heat up,

blasting particles of the asteroid into space.


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1.The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA's) MUSES-C / Hayabusalaunched on May 9, 2003, the spacecraft has succeeded in returning surprisingdata on a tiny near-Earth asteroid.

2.The European Space Agency has begun a mission, named Don Quixote, which isthe first real asteroid deflection mission ever designed.

3. Astronomers have been conducting surveys to locate the NEAs. One of thebest-known is the LINEAR which began in 1996. By 2004 LINEAR wasdiscovering tens of thousands of objects each year and accounting for 70% ofall asteroid detections. LINEAR uses two one-meter telescopes and one half-meter one based in New Mexico.

4.Spacewatch uses an old 90 centimeter telescope sited at the Kitt PeakObservatory in Arizona, and is updated with automatic pointing, imaging, andanalysis equipment to search the skies for intruders.

5. Other near-earth asteroid tracking programs include Near-Earth AsteroidTracking (NEAT), Lowell Observatory Near-Earth-Object Search (LONEOS),Catalina Sky Survey, Campo Imperator Near-Earth Objects Survey (CINEOS),Japanese Space guard Association, and Asia go-DLR Asteroid Survey.

6."Spaceguard" is the name for these loosely affiliated programs, some of which

receive NASA funding to meet a U.S. Congressional requirement to detect 90%of near-earth asteroids over 1 km diameter by 2008.


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NEOs AS SOURCES OF INFORMATIONNEOs AS SOURCES OF INFORMATION

Impacts of comet and asteroid rain in the past may have given water and carbon-based molecules to the Earth's surface.

NEOs could be most easily exploited for theirraw materials.

These raw materials could be used in developing the space structures and ingenerating the rocket fuel.

By determining the age and composition of the asteroid or the NEO in general, wemight just stumble upon the information regarding a new form of life existing in oursolar system.


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