Hasta La Gadget!

That little, white pixelated bean spinning around above might look more like a bad 80s video game than the near-messenger of quick and devastating apocalypse, but that’s what happens when you’re taking shots 74,000 miles away from your subject. What you’re seeing is, in fact, 2012 DA14 at a resolution of around 13 feet per pixel over an 8 hour period just as it was mercifully passing our beautiful space marble by on the evening of February 15. More »

It has been an eventful year for space enthusiasts, with it seeming like a new asteroid is announced every week, each one coming closer and closer to our blue marble. Then, just a few days ago, a large asteroid smashed into Russia, injuring over 1000 people. Now a researcher and a physicist have teamed up to propose a solution to the problem – a laser-beam generating solar-based asteroid destroyer that could destroy a space rock half the size of a football field in 30 minutes.

Philip M. Lubina, a physicist and professor from the University of California Santa Barbara, and Gary B. Hughes, a researcher and professor from California Polytechnic State University are responsible for the concept, which you can see in the image above. The project is called DE-STAR, which stands for Directed Energy Solar Targeting of Asteroids an exploRation.

The system will work by using solar panels to turn energy from the sun into a “phased array” of individual laser beams that are channeled into a single mega-laser beam that eradicates the asteroids, a la the Death Star. If the asteroid is too large, DE-STAR would work by deflecting it away from our fragile planet. The best part? The concept is based on technology that is widely available now.

Said Hughes, one of the two who developed the concept: “This system is not some far-out idea from Star Trek. All the components of this system pretty much exist today. Maybe not quite at the scale that we’d need –– scaling up would be the challenge –– but the basic elements are all there and ready to go. We just need to put them into a larger system to be effective, and once the system is there, it can do so many things.”

[via UCSB]

Scientist propose solar-based DE-STAR asteroid destroyer is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Between the recent meteorite strike and our close call with 2012 DA14, we’ve all been thinking an awful lot about potential impact hazards from the heavens. Thankfully, however, during our visit to NASA Ames last week, much of our fear was put to rest by astrobiologist Dr. David Morrison, the scientist who coined the word “cosmophobia” to describe the fear of external impacts on Earth. Morrison, who recently served as one of the go to sources for science fact (and common sense) in stories about the 2012 Mayan Apocalypse speculation, spoke to us about the likelihood of major asteroid impact on Earth — and what we can do to stop it. Hang around after the break to check out our full interview with the good space doctor.

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For the past week, news stations around the world have been mentioning an asteroid called DA14  is expected to pass extremely close to Earth some time on February 15. What we didn’t expect was for another completely unrelated 10-ton meteorite to crash to Earth earlier this morning in Chelyabinsk, Russia, which is located 950 miles away from Moscow.

When the meteorite entered the Earth’s atmosphere at around 9:20 a.m. local time, it flew across the sky at 33,000 mph and broke into pieces 18 to 32 miles above ground, according to a statement released by the Russian Academy of Sciences. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Game of Thrones Season 3 Preview Describes The Nature Of Chaos, DeLorean Hovercraft Caught In The Wild In San Francisco,

If you fancy getting cosy with an asteroid that’s got the destructive power of a nuclear arsenal, today’s your lucky day. The wittily-named 2012 DA14 will sail past Australia at a distance of 17,510 miles early this afternoon, and while it won’t be visible with the naked eye, NASA’s got a few telescopes that’ll do the job. It’ll come into range at around 2:00pm ET, and is expected to be at its brightest about 25 minutes afterward. If your boss is sympathetic and you don’t wanna miss a thing, head on past the break to catch the livestream, which started at 12:00pm ET. As for us? We’re gonna spend the next few hours looking for Bruce Willis’ phone number.

Filed under: Science, Alt

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