A storm of boulders “as deadly as Hiroshima” was accidentally unleashed by Nasa during tests

https://www.yahoo.com/news/nasa-asteroid-blunder-unleashes-boulder-160735199.html


"A storm of boulders “as deadly as Hiroshima” was accidentally unleashed by Nasa during tests to change the trajectory of an asteroid, scientists have found.

Last September, the space agency crashed a spacecraft into the asteroid Dimorphos in the first-ever planetary defence experiment aimed at finding ways to protect humanity from an extinction-level event.

Now astronomers have found that although the impact succeeded in knocking Dimorphos slightly off course, it also dislodged 37 boulders, which are currently zipping through space at 13,000mph.

Experts said it showed that deflection strategies could have unintended consequences that leave smaller rocks on a collision course with Earth."

 

Sounds like classic fear mongering

"Although the system is technically classified as potentially hazardous, it is still six million miles away from Earth and unlikely to pose a threat in the near future."

 

...which is usually classic attention-seeking. Yes, it does. Both. Gotta get those clicks.

 

For the fear-mongers out there, get this through your dinosaur-skulls. NASA needs to do this work. and yes, they're going to learn through experiences like this. They're able to watch what goes on in space now, and detect trajectories of objects which may come uncomfortably close to earth - or potentially collide.

The plan is to continue detecting such objects 'way ahead of potential disaster - years ahead, so they can change the course of objects, or even destroy them if that appears to be the correct solution. I'm glad that tech. has advanced to the point where these experiments are being carried out, by responsible, knowledgeable scientists and technicians. On our side.

At some point(s) in the future, work like this might well save this second wave of dinosaurs from extinction - the frightened humanoid ones, pulling the bed-covers over themselves in fear. 65 million years ago, the first wave - the non-humanoid dinosaurs - weren't so lucky - they were killed by the after-effects a large hunk of space-junk colliding with Mother Earth. First a bang, then a whimper.

We don't want that again. Keep up the good work, NASA!