by BOB YIRKA
Trajectory of 2008EA9 before and after orbit maneuver. IMAGE/arXiv:1108.4767v1 [astro-ph.EP]
For as long as man has been aware of the danger of asteroids or comets hitting our planet, there have been ideas put forth as to ways in which they could deterred or destroyed. As technology has improved, the ideas have become ever more feasible. But until now, it appears no one has thought seriously about turning what could be a problem for us, into a goldmine, so to speak.
In their paper, the team writes about how they’ve been studying how an occasional asteroid has been known to be naturally captured in an orbit around Jupiter, where it stays for a while until it is eventually flung back out into space. The comet, Oterma, for example did just that in 1936. This got them to wondering if any such NEO might be lurking around out there all set to do the same for our planet. Unfortunately, their search turned up empty. Undaunted they then began looking into whether there might be an NEO or two that might come awfully close, and found that indeed there were.
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