An American laboratory heralds a "new era" of nuclear fusion to ward off the threat of asteroids threatening Earth

Scientists have developed a new tool to simulate the use of a nuclear device to change the course of catastrophic asteroids and prevent them from colliding with Earth.

The new study, published in the Planetary Science Journal, provides an innovative way to model the spread of energy from a nuclear device on the surface of an asteroid.

In a first of its kind in the world, scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California (LLNL) were able to produce a nuclear fusion reaction that released more energy than it consumed, in a process called “ignition.”

Scientists hope to use the model to build on insights gained from NASA's September 2022 Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, in which the agency deliberately crashed a spacecraft onto an asteroid to change its trajectory.

However, with the limited mass that can be lifted into space, scientists continue to explore nuclear deflection as a practical alternative for kinetic impact missions.

“Although the probability of a major asteroid impact occurring within our lifetime is low, the potential consequences could be devastating,” said Megan Brooke Sial, a physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL).

NASA broadcasts the first video from deep space via laser!

Since nuclear devices have the highest ratio of energy density per unit of mass, scientists, including a team from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the US, say this technology is invaluable in mitigating asteroid threats.

“If a true planetary defense emergency arises, decisions about launching reconnaissance and/or modification missions should be informed by the latest modeling and simulation capabilities,” the team wrote in the paper.

They noted that such simulations also need to be run at very high speeds to quickly prepare countermeasures.

"If we had enough warning time, we could potentially launch a nuclear device, sending it millions of miles away to an asteroid headed toward Earth," explains physicist Mary Burke of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. "We would then detonate the device, and it would either neutralize the asteroid and leave it intact." "But given a controlled push away from Earth, or we could smash the asteroid, breaking it up into small, fast-moving fragments that wouldn't hit the planet either."

Scientists say that predicting the effectiveness of deflecting asteroids by nuclear explosions requires sophisticated simulations that include several theories in physics.

"The physics involved in these simulations spans several orders of magnitude, require a variety of different complex physics packages, and are computationally expensive," the team added.

Scientists point out that the new model developed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory covers a wide range of physical factors, making the simulation complex and computationally demanding.

They added that the model simulates several factors, accounting for many complex processes, such as re-radiation and light penetration into asteroid materials.

Scientists say such a comprehensive approach makes the model applicable to a wide range of potential asteroid scenarios should a true emergency arise.

Expert: Humanity will not give up oil in the next fifty years

Russian academic Alexei Kontorovich announced that humanity will not be able to completely abandon oil during the next fifty years.

The Russian academic had made a statement to the Russian TASS news agency days before his death in which he indicated that the issue of transitioning to new types of energy sources would arise in the years 2050-2070 when oil, gas and coal resources begin to run out.

He said: “The consumption of oil, gas and coal is increasing in the world, so in this case it is not possible to reject any of the energy resources or even abandon the energy resources that today provide 70 percent of humanity’s needs. Of course everyone knows that these resources will run out. This is a completely clear fact, “According to estimates, this will happen in the middle of the twenty-first century, and perhaps in the seventies.”

He added, explaining, "Oil extraction in Russia and the world has reached its peak, and gas is approaching that as well. But in the future this will lead to a shortage of these resources. In addition to that, there are fluctuations, such as inflation, epidemics, and crises, and these are all just fluctuations against the background of the general trend of growth in consumption." energy".

According to him, the upward trend in energy consumption will continue. He says: “70 percent of the total energy produced by humanity is currently consumed by less than a billion people - Europe, the United States, Japan and South Korea. This is the so-called golden billion. The remaining 5-6 billion consume only 30 percent. In the 1950s, we will reach The maximum, where the volume of oil extracted will not increase, but the population of the world will increase, accompanied by an increase in the number of countries wishing to obtain energy.”