A VIRTUAL game of interplanetary pool has revealed the best way to knock an asteroid off course and prevent it colliding with the Earth.
Several earlier studies have simulated the effects of firing a projectile at a menacing asteroid to change its orbital velocity and hence its trajectory. But they all included simplifications, for instance that the projectile would hit the rock head-on or from behind, a so-called parallel attack, rather than at an oblique angle.
Now Ekkehard Kührt, Ralph Kahle and Gerhard Hahn from the German Aerospace Center in Berlin have designed a more sophisticated mathematical model. It takes account of the gravitational influence of the moon and all the planets, including the Earth, and selects the best angle of attack to make sure an asteroid passes the Earth at a safe distance of twice the planet's radius. "It's a very complex simulation," says Kührt.
The team applied the ...
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