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The internet revolution has opened up a plethora of new jobs. Some of these jobs were completely unheard of to the vast majority of people in the world just five or ten years ago. Now, as more and more people have caught on, these positions are becoming highly competitive and sought after, and for good reason.
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Large asteroids don't tend to hit Earth very often. But when they do, major cataclysms result. Remember the dinosaurs?
Add to this the fact that since 1998, scientists have detected about 25,000 near-Earth asteroids, while in 2020 alone, a record 107 of them came closer to our planet than the distance to the moon. With so many asteroids floating by, protecting our planet from impacts by these giant space bodies is an existential priority.
To prepare for the day when an asteroid will be heading our way, a joint study published in Acta Astronautica from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and the Air Force, looked at how to use neutron energy output from a nuclear blast to deflect such a threat.
The scientists devised sophisticated computer simulations to compare strategies that could divert an asteroid 300 meters in diameter. In particular, they aimed to identify the effects of neutron energies resulting from a nuclear "standoff" explosion on the space rock's path. (A standoff detonation involves detonating a nuclear device near a space object — not on its surface.) The goal would be to deflect the asteroid rather than blow it up.
Detonating a nuclear device near an asteroid deposits energy at and below the surface.Credit: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
The researchers understood that they could affect an asteroid's path by changing the distribution and strength of the released neutron energy. Directing the energy could influence how much melted and vaporized debris could be created and its speed, which in turn would alter the asteroid's velocity. As the authors write in the paper, "Changing the neutron energy was found to have up to a 70% impact on deflection performance."
The scientists see their work as a stepping stone in continuing research into how best to protect our planet. They plan to devise further simulations in order to comprehend more precisely the energy spread needed for the deflection strategy to work.
Lansing Horan IV led the research, while getting a nuclear engineering master's degree at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) in a program with LLNL's Planetary Defense and Weapon Output groups. Horan explained that their team decided to zero in on neutron radiation from a nuclear blast because neutrons are more penetrating than X-rays.
"This means that a neutron yield can potentially heat greater amounts of asteroid surface material, and therefore be more effective for deflecting asteroids than an X-ray yield," he shared.
Another possible strategy for getting rid of an asteroid threat would be through so-called disruption. It essentially involves blowing the asteroid up, breaking it into tiny fast-moving pieces. Most of these shards should miss the Earth but around 0.5% could make it to the surface. The strategy does seem to have some drawbacks, however, if a larger asteroid came close to Earth. Exploding something like that could create a significant amount of calamity for the planet even if the whole asteroid didn't graze us.
Horan thinks disruption may be more appropriate as a last-minute tactic "if the warning time before an asteroid impact is short and/or the asteroid is relatively small."
Deflection is ultimately safer and less likely to produce negative consequences as it involves a smaller amount of energy than it would take to explode it. Horan said that over time, especially if we detect and deflect asteroids years before impact, even small changes in velocity should make them miss Earth.
While some may be understandably worried about using nuclear blasts close to Earth, Hogan sees it as something that may have to be considered in situations when time is of the essence.
"It is important that we further research and understand all asteroid mitigation technologies in order to maximize the tools in our toolkit," Horan elaborated. "In certain scenarios, using a nuclear device to deflect an asteroid would come with several advantages over non-nuclear alternatives."
One such scenario would be if there's not enough warning and the approaching asteroid is large. In that case, a nuclear detonation might be "our only practical option for deflection and/or disruption," proposed the scientist.
Considered the world's first analog computer, this marvel of ancient engineering used dozens of bronze gears to predict the positions of the Moon, Sun, and five planets, as well as the timing of solar and lunar eclipses.
Divers discovered the Antikythera mechanism while exploring a Roman-era shipwreck in 1901, but the ancient computer was in far from pristine condition—only about a third of it had survived the 2,000 years underwater.
Researchers have been trying to understand how the Antikythera mechanism worked ever since—and now, a team from University College London (UCL) may have finally cracked its code.
The Antikythera mechanism
Here's what we knew about the Antikythera mechanism prior to this study.
It had at least 30 gears, housed in a wooden case about the size of a shoebox. On the front of the case was a large circular face with hands, similar to a clock. On its side was some sort of handle or knob that could be used to wind the ancient computer.
The device was found in one big chunk that was later broken into 82 fragments. In 2005, researchers took CT scans of the fragments, revealing text that hadn't been read since before the device landed itself at the bottom of the Aegean Sea.
Using that text—and a Greek philosopher's math theory—the UCL team created a computer model of the part of the Antikythera mechanism that depicts the cycles of the Sun, Moon, and planets.
"Ours is the first model that conforms to all the physical evidence and matches the descriptions in the scientific inscriptions engraved on the mechanism itself," researcher Tony Freeth said in a press release.
"The Sun, Moon, and planets are displayed in an impressive tour de force of ancient Greek brilliance."
Piecing it together
To create this new model, the UCL team focused on two numbers on the front of the Antikythera mechanism: 462 and 442.
That's how many Earth years it takes Venus and Saturn, respectively, to complete one cycle across the sky—but how the creators of the ancient computer knew that information was a mystery.
"The classic astronomy of the first millennium BC originated in Babylon," researcher Aris Dacanalis said, "but nothing in this astronomy suggested how the ancient Greeks found the highly accurate 462-year cycle for Venus and 442-year cycle for Saturn."
Re-creating the cycles of those planets (and others) using this one device was further complicated by the fact that the ancient Greeks assumed the Earth—and not the sun—was at the center of the solar system.
The largest surviving piece of the Antikythera mechanism.Credit: National Archaeological Museum, Athens
Using a mathematical method described by ancient Greek philosopher Parmenides as their guide, the UCL team devised an arrangement for the Antikythera mechanism's gears that would cause it to display the correct information about the planets' cycles.
Their solution also minimizes the number of gears needed for the computer to work, ensuring that they'd all be able to fit within the confines of its wooden case.
"Solving this complex 3D puzzle reveals a creation of genius—combining cycles from Babylonian astronomy, mathematics from Plato's Academy, and ancient Greek astronomical theories," the authors wrote in their study.
UCL's computer model of the Antikythera Mechanism.Credit: Tony Freeth
Re-creating an ancient computer
The researchers are confident that their re-creation of the Antikythera mechanism works in theory—but whether the ancient Greeks could have actually constructed the device isn't so certain.
"The concentric tubes at the core of the planetarium are where my faith in Greek tech falters, and where the model might also falter," researcher Adam Wojcik told The Guardian. "Lathes would be the way today, but we can't assume they had those for metal."
The researchers now plan to prove their model's feasibility by attempting to re-create it using ancient techniques.
Even if they're successful, though, other questions about the Antikythera mechanism will remain, including who made it, what did they use it for, and are there others still waiting to be discovered?
Reprinted with permission of Freethink. Read the original article.
