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Researchers have honed laser technology to be able to slow, stop, and reverse the rotation of an asteroid-like target in a simulated space environment. The findings could potentially help deflect Earth-bound asteroids in the event of a major-impact threat.Tags
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DE-STAR (Directed Energy System for Targeting of Asteroids and exploRation) can, among other uses, stop the rotation of a spinning asteroid, according to small-scale, graphic demonstrations by the Experimental Cosmology Group, led by UC Santa Barbara physicist Philip Lubin and Gary B. Hughes, a researcher and professor at California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo.
In order to simulate the laser's deflection capabilities, researchers used basalt, which is composed of materials similar to those of an asteroid. The team directed a laser at the basalt until it began to turn from a mineral to a gas. As the "asteroid" lost mass, it became a propellant.
"What happens is a process called sublimation or vaporization, which turns a solid or liquid into a gas,"
said Travis Brashears, a student at the University of California-Berkeley involved in the research. "That gas causes a plume cloud — mass ejection — which generates an opposite and equal reaction or thrust — and that's what we measure."
Magnets were used to spin the basalt, simulating a rotating asteroid. The laser system was also used to slow the rotation of the target.
Comment: Such loud booms with no identifiable source could in all likelihood be overhead explosions caused by meteor fireballs, or other seismic interactions brought about from our changing cosmic climate. See also:
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