Aussie has answer to save Earth from asteroid attack

An PhD student with the University of Queensland’s School of Engineering has won top prize in an international competition for her plan to wrap a giant asteroid with reflective sheeting to prevent a collision with the Earth.

The asteroid, Apophis, is estimated to be perhaps 270 metres across and it will pass close to Earth in 2029, well inside the orbit of the Moon and closing in to the same sort of distance as geosynchronous satellites.

Despite being considerably smaller than the 15km wide asteroid that struck the Earth in what is now the Yucatán Peninsula, in south east Mexico – and more than likely caused the extinction of the dinosaurs, if it collided with Earth it would strike with the force of more than 110,000 Hiroshima atomic bombs.

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