It has been about 66 million years since an asteroid hit Earth. The result was the extinction of dinosaurs and numerous other species. According to physicist Werner Gruber, the danger of similar impacts is still present and such an asteroid impact would still have devastating effects on a global level today. In the krone.tv interview with Jürgen Winterleitner, the physicist explains why things might not look so bad for humanity in the future: A recent mission from the US space agency NASA gives cause for hope that the world can be protected from asteroid- impacts. In the interview, Gruber also answers the question of whether the colonization of alien planets in the near future is realistic.
“Impact confirmed for world’s first planetary defense test mission,” NASA announced after a probe successfully collided with the asteroid Dimorphos. The mission was named DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test). The goal of the mission was to change the asteroid’s orbit through the targeted impact of the DART probe.
The mission cost $330 million. The cube-shaped DART probe, the size of a refrigerator, was launched in November 2021 on a Falcon 9 rocket from the US state of California and then made its way to the asteroid Dimorphos, seven million miles away. With the mission, NASA hopes to gain insight into how to protect Earth from approaching asteroids. NASA and researchers around the world have struggled with this question for years. For example, an asteroid impact from about 66 million years ago is considered by scientists to be the leading theory of why the dinosaurs went extinct.
In an interview, Gruber explains that there are an estimated 25,000 “planet killers”, ie larger chunks of rock, in our solar system. Only about 8,000 of these objects are currently mapped and documented. The challenge is to find and document the objects for monitoring.
For example, if an asteroid hits the ocean, it can create tsunamis with monster waves from 50 to 100 meters high. “If a monster wave like this hits Los Angeles, that’s it for Los Angeles,” Gruber says. The physicist sees NASA’s DART mission as a great success. “The success is three times greater than expected,” he says, and in the interview draws comparisons with the Nobel Prize for the Austrian Anton Zeilinger.
You can see the entire interview with Werner Gruber in the video above.
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Source: Krone
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
