Making laser guns to protect Earth from meteorites

American scientists believe that it is possible to use laser guns placed in space to deflect asteroids that tend to collide with Earth like in the science fiction movie Star Wars.

Simulation of the De-Star laser gun system. Photo: Telegraph

According toTelegraphThis idea was developed by scientists at the University of California, USA. They said the laser system called De-Star has been successfully tested in the laboratory.

When launched into Earth's orbit and a potentially catastrophic asteroid is detected, the De-Star unmanned system will target it with a high-energy laser beam, vaporizing part of the asteroid.

The gas released during this evaporation would create enough thrust to change the asteroid's orbit, causing it to veer away from Earth.

The team tested bombarding a piece of basalt, an igneous rock with a similar composition to asteroids, and found that it lost mass when heated with a laser.

"This process is called sublimation or vaporization, which turns a solid or liquid into a gas," said Travis Brashears, a student working on the team. "That gas will create a plume cloud and a jet that pushes in the opposite direction. We'll measure that jet."

They also use this effect to slow down and reverse the rotation of the basalt fragment.

“In general, the technological problem has been solved. The main challenge now is the scale needed to make the system effective,” said Qicheng Zhang, one of the project’s authors.

According to calculations, it would take a 10 kW laser beam to deflect a 100 meter diameter asteroid within 30 years.

The team is also simultaneously developing a smaller version that could fly alongside asteroids as a precaution, in case of low-risk collision warnings.

According to VNE