We might have to rethink our asteroid defense strategy.
Researchers have found that some asteroids that are largely made from small pieces of rubble could be very difficult to deflect if one were to ever hurtle towards Earth, a terrifying finding that could force us to reconsider our asteroid defense strategies.of asteroid Didymos by smashing its Double Asteroid Reduction Test spacecraft into it last year, a proof of concept mission meant to investigate ways for humanity to protect itself from asteroid threats.
By analyzing asteroid particles collected by Japanese Space Agency's Hayabusa 1 probe, which visited the 1,600-foot "rubble pile" asteroid Itokawa back in 2005, the researchers suggest the remote asteroid is far older than previously thought. In fact, Itokawa, which scientists have long believed is a giant collection of space rocks and not one large lump, could be as old as the solar system itself.
According to Jourdan and his colleagues, the fact that it's a rubble pile and not a solid lump makes it inherently shock-absorbent, which could explain its extremely long lifespan and inherent resilience."In short, we found that Itokawa is like a giant space cushion, and very hard to destroy," he said.
The research suggests that rubble piles like Itokawa may be far "more abundant in the asteroid belt than previously thought," according to coauthor Nick Timms, also a professor of planetary sciences at Curtin, which means "there is more chance that if a big asteroid is hurtling toward Earth, it will be a rubble pile.
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