Defending Earth From Asteroids

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The Tunguska event, it was believed to be caused by the air burst of an asteroid or comet about 50-60 meters or 160-200 ft in size, at an altitude of 5-10 kilometers or about 3-6 miles. It was estimated that the asteroid had a kinetic energy of around 15 megatons, or the equivalent to that of an explosion of 1,000 Hiroshima-type atomic bombs. It’s even been estimated that the explosion had caused a deceleration of the Earth's rotation relative to the rest of the Solar System by 4 microseconds. This explosion, caused by a near-earth asteroid about 20 meters or 66 ft in size, was estimated to have released the energy equivalent of around 500 kilotons of TNT.
The Chelyabinsk event is a reminder of the destructive power of even small asteroids, and highlights both the frequency of these events as well as the importance of the need to to identify and track these potential threats.
PHO
PHO’s are defined as near earth objects, such as an asteroid or a comet, that have an orbit which approaches the earth at a distance of 0.05 astronomical units or 19.5 lunar distances, or less. 85% these asteroids are known as Apollo asteroids, as they hold an orbit that keeps within the inner solar system.
DETECTING POTENTIAL THREAT OBJECTS
They scan the sky slowly, on the order of once a month but produce deeper, more highly resolved data. Warning surveys, in contrast, utilize smaller telescopes to rapidly scan the sky for smaller asteroids that are within several million kilometers from earth. These dedicated survey installations first started to appear around the late 1990s and were initially clustered together in a relatively small part of the Northern Hemisphere. Initiated in 2015, This robotic astronomical survey and early warning system located in the Hawaiian islands is optimized for detecting smaller near-Earth objects a few weeks to days before they impact Earth.
Further NASA funding had brought the system to the Southern hemisphere with two additional telescopes becoming operational in early 2022 in South Africa. At present, several other southern hemisphere based surveys are also under construction. In addition to ground based surveys, the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer or WISE infrared telescope, in earth’s orbit, was tasked with a 4 month extension mission called NEOWISE, to search for near-earth objects using its remaining capabilities. While this initial extension occurred in 2010, NASA had reactivated the mission in 2013 for a new three-year mission to search for asteroids that could collide with Earth, and by July 2021, NASA would reactivate NEOWISE once again, with another PHO detection mission extending until June of 2023.
Currently, a replacement space-based infrared telescope survey system called the NEO Surveyor is under development with an expected deployment in 2026.
DART MISSION
DART was launched on November, 24 2021 on a dedicated Falcon 9 mission. The mission payload along with Falcon 9's second stage was placed directly on an Earth escape trajectory and into heliocentric orbit when the second stage reentered for a second escape burn. Despite DART carrying enough xenon fuel for its Ion thruster, Falcon 9 did almost all of the work, leaving the spacecraft to perform only a few trajectory-correction burns with simple chemical thrusters for most of the journey. On 27 July 2022, the DRACO camera detected the Didymos system from approximately 32 million km or 20 million mi away and began to refine its trajectory.
These captured images were transmitted in real time to earth using the RLSA communication system. A few minutes before impact DART performed final trajectory corrections. This ultimately changes the overall orbit of the asteroid system. An asteroid on a hypothetical collision course with earth would only require a path shift of 6,500 km to avoid the earth, a tiny amount relative to 10s the millions of kilometers it would travel orbiting the sun.
LICACUBE
Built to carry out observational analysis of the Didymos asteroid binary system after DART's impact, it was the first deep space mission to be developed and autonomously managed by an Italian team.
HERA - FOLLOW UP
In October 2024, the ESA will launch the Hera mission with its primary objective being the validation of the kinetic impact method to deviate a near-Earth asteroid in a colliding trajectory with Earth. Hera will fully characterize the composition and physical properties of the binary asteroid system including the sub-surface and internal structures. Hera is expected to arrive at the Didymos system in 2026.
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[@NewMind]

▶ Visit brilliant.org/NewMind to get started learning STEM for free, and the first 200 people will get 20% off their annual premium subscription

[@andersjjensen]

Another smash-hit of a video. Your narration and visuals are always top notch. Most commercial TV production companies don't even come close.

[@subnormality5854]

I think space agencies have an officer whose sole job is to come up with cool acronyms for projects

[@gglasser8375]

Somebody in the graphics decided to put a gen 1 Dodge Viper in space at 10:02. I just want to say to that person: Thank you, you made my day!

[@thomasl6912]

Very interesting topic and great video. Thank you 😌

[@zvisger]

You're just great at getting this stuff across. I really enjoy it, thanks :)

[@bowieinc]

8:46 Man, what an awesome job Title! I can imagine someone being like, “so what do you do for a living?”, “ Oh, I’m just the head of planetary defense”. 😊

[@cacs99]

Thanks for creating yet another top notch video.

[@daviddevlogger]

Try and fail, but don't fail to try.

[@birdness]

Thanks Yoda

[@CarlosAM1]

Thanks Sun Tzu

[@lorriecarrel9962]

One of the best things I've ever read

[@Foof0811]

:( omg for a 2nd time didn't get a notification of a new video from you. Not sure what else the algo needs from me. I've watched every one of your videos. I hate missing your releases, they're always stellar ;)

[@tonyhawk123]

Nicely presented video but reading out every acronym got painful after a while.

[@jasonbonacum9611]

17:00 the last image before impact gives me a weird feeling. It looks so strangely normal. Like it's just a picture of someone's gravel driveway.

[@uku4171]

The rocks are a lot bigger

[@circusitch]

The New Mind guy was at my house and filmed my driveway.

[@morkovija]

another banger of a freely available content

[@kwhite621]

You put out some of the best stuff on KZbin. Excellent video

[@MegaPurpleMonster000]

No he doesn't, he didn't even mention telsa In this video which is a HUGE thing for tunguska

[@chengong388]

Damn, in KSP we'd just attach like 20 Behemoth engines to it and push it out of the way.

[@brianbb177]

as well as a scientific mission, it also had a goal of creating the most clever acronyms of any spacecraft

[@kennetha6594]

This is such a well produced video. I have no idea why it doesn't have more views. My new fave channel! 👌

[@henrignu7005]

I hope something like the Chelyabinsk asteroid incident doesn't happen again anytime soon... given how tense international relations are in 2022, an unexpected explosion near a Russian city could cause a really awful misunderstanding. Seems to me these asteroid detection efforts have taken on a new urgency.

[@mennnzz]

The Earth is continuously hit with small space rocks everyday, which mostly go unnoticed. It's only a matter a time when a big one hits. Great video!

[@danishshaikh2888]

Bro when is the quantum calculation part 2 video coming up?

[@Hawk7886]

2:20 As of October 6, 2022, 33B RUB equals approximately 543M USD

[@AlecMuller]

The high-speed-pans (e.g. 7:56) are a bit nausea-inducing, and detract from an otherwise great video IMHO.

[@lewistempleman9752]

I hope so

[@herculesrockefeller8969]

TMA - Too Many Acronyms.

[@charlesseymour1482]

Thermal mechanical analysis

[@Jet-Pack]

Even if a known threat is detected the most likely outcome is perfectly captured by the movie Don't Look Up.

[@ADRIAAN1007]

This is about the dumbest comment I have ever personally read.

[@Mionwang]

The rocket science people have the best acronyms.

[@andersjjensen]

I'm starting to think they come up with the acronyms first, and then go justify why such a mission is needed! :P

[@hanhnhi9173]

Oh wow! Hat off to you! If it is not out of love and passion, I don't know what can drive you to make these videos. I would like to share your wonderful channel with the world by reposting it on another website known as Ganjing World. Of course, without changing anything and definitely give you full credit. What do you think? 🥰

[@RonakDhakan]

Looks like most of NASA's budget goes into naming things.

[@lindenhoch8396]

Space acronyms are the best acronyms.

[@circusitch]

It’s nice to be defended.

[@seanc6754]

Even though this was a very small impact on a very small rock especially relative to how unbelievably massive just our solar system is this was very impressive..but.. it makes me wonder if they are testing this system for something that may be on its way maybe decades away..the government doesn't just spend money unless there is a very good and NEEDED reason

[@brendanmay9585]

We KNOW for sure that it is needed. We just don't know when. What we really need is a probe on the far side of the sun where we basically can't see

[@uku4171]

Are you joking? It's wasting tons of money all the time.

[@QuakeGamerROTMG]

You don't need to know 100% that this will definitely be needed but if in a couple decades we find something IS on a collision course you need to have the testing done already There's no sense in waiting until it's too late to try this stuff

[@CarlosAM1]

NASA has made other way more expensive scientific experiments before, and even other impactors like the Deep Impact mission on a comet. This is just another for the list, but since it's related to an asteroid armchair detectives and conspiracy-minded people simply can't help but make up things to try to start doubt and confusion among people.

[@wrefk]

They must have a whole department devoted to coming up with these acronyms, wow!

[@Sagittarius-A-Star]

Covidiots will never come across a video like this.

[@maxxwelthrix432]

I thought this was going to be a climate change video, or maybe an nuclear bomb, but I was surprised and excited by the time I figured out what he was going to talk about.

[@williamromine5715]

Is there a risk that the impact changes the orbit to hit the earth rather than missing?

[@mr.ackermann807]

The satellite impact I don't think so otherwise they wouldn't have launched in the first place. However there is the possibility of other space rocks hitting it and causing the satellite force to be for not and still head to earth. In those scenarios it might be best to also have a shot gun like shrapnel cone from the satellite to hit the others to avoid such a situation. It would also depend on what it is made of and how much since these factors can also affect the end results too.

[@kunai9809]

damn, NASA really LOVES acronyms :D

[@OlleHungrig]

read nexus magazine artcal about this event and others...earth already has a own old defece

[@badnight5778]

The thumbnail: THIS IS NASA!!!!!

[@jaredtseng9521]

The EDF deploys

[@0neIntangible]

Besides asteroids/comets/meteors, I'm concerned as an observer only, about the rapid buildup of all that space junk out there... the Kessler syndrome or some such name for it.

[@uku4171]

That's only relevant very close to Earth.

[@michaelzlprime]

So basically an Interplanetary missile. Them dirty aliens won't know what hit'em

[@whcolours9995]

Why protect can has already been mined?™

[@PushyPawn]

If only Vladolf Putler doesn't put us into a nuclear winter before then...

[@koshile3794]

MMMm Pho. Now I'm hungry

[@0neIntangible]

Pho... Spicy Vietnamese noodle beef/pork stew/soup... yummy.🥣🍜

[@koshile3794]

@@0neIntangible that's Bun Bo Hue. Still very delicious. Hungry again hahha

[@kesaranpasaran2630]

Human nowadays do more harm than other source of extinction tho

[@austinbevis4266]

99 percent of all life went extinct before humans even existed. I don’t think we’ve come close to that level of damage yet

[@kesaranpasaran2630]

@@austinbevis4266 'nowadays' . Say, If advancement and technology in last 400 years manage to rival possible extinction of its own and other species in its 400.000 year history of modern human, 99 percent looks cheap

[@CarlosAM1]

a big enough asteroid impact could do more damage than humans ever did

[@austinbevis4266]

I’m dumb, can someone tell me why the asteroid in Siberia caused all that damage without hitting the ground?

[@5runtimeerrors]

It's the same with the atomic bombs in WW2. They detonated in the air, but the explosion is so strong it produces heat and shockwaves capable of melting/damaging structures, trees, humans, etc. It's not the "impact" of the bomb most of the times, just the aftermath, the energy it releases that causes the damage. For bombs, I think they have a greater area of attack from being detonated in the air than on ground too. These asteroid explosions were just "natural bombs", just at a bigger distance than the bombs we deployed, so the impact wasn't as big.

[@austinbevis4266]

@@5runtimeerrors but what made asteroids explode in the air? Why would it not either get burnt up or just hit the ground?

[@Brurgh]

@@austinbevis4266 The asteroid hit the Earth's Atmosphere. The Earths atmosphere is very dense compared to space. Upon the collision the asteroid evapourated but also sent powerful shockwaves which caused the damage.

[@mastershooter64]

But how do you defend planet earth, from ourselves D:

[@WhyDontYouBuildit]

Planet earth is gonna be fine... humans however...

[@austinbevis4266]

@@WhyDontYouBuildit yeah exactly lmao. Earth was a hell scape at one point and survived just fine. Who knows what our fate will be though

[@karisikpekmez6850]

space definitions alll endefinite. Only assumptob. There s a flat earth!

[@Tekkenandgaming]

Nuke’em! Jk jk lol

[@bertbaker7067]

I'm not a proponent of conspiracy theories, but the timing of NASA getting interested in deflecting asteroids seems kinda sudden. Like after they run this experiment once or twice more to work out major bugs, suddenly we'll spot a much larger asteroid coming worryingly close. But, thank goodness those heros at NASA just did all these tests and can save the day. Just in time for figuring out next year's federal budget too.

[@gustavfenk4021]

None of these solutions involve Bruce Willis. FAIL.

[@NewMind]

I was tempted to take the copyright claim hit and put "I Don't Want To Miss a Thing" as the ambient music.

[@IamWhoIam2023]

I feel bad for people who believe these lies

[@MegaPurpleMonster000]

How could you not not about tesla here????

[@liutaurasbalnius]

Amogus defence