Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Muhammad Yunus, the Chief Advisor of the interim government in Bangladesh, sat side by side during the official dinner hosted by the Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra for the visiting Heads of States and Head of Governments on Thursday attending the BIMSTEC summit in Bangkok. The official X handle of Chief Advisor of the Government of Bangladesh posted screen grabs of both leaders sitting side by side at the dinner table as the Thai PM welcomed the BIMSTEC leaders. Local media in Bangladesh quoted Chief Advisor's Deputy Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad as saying that both leaders "met each other" during the official dinner. The interim government has been keen on holding first-ever bilateral talks between the two leaders on the sidelines of the BIMSTEC summit in Bangkok. The BIMSTEC chairmanship will be officially handed over to Bangladesh on Friday. Chief Advisor's High Representative on Rohingya and Priority Issues Khali...
Asteroid collisions with Earth are surprisingly common, with NASA estimating 48.5 tonnes of meteoric material entering our atmosphere daily. Most burn up, producing shooting stars. Although devastating asteroid impacts are rare in Earth's history, humanity has learned a crucial lesson from the catastrophic event 66 million years ago. The asteroid responsible for the dinosaurs' extinction was approximately six miles wide, but significantly smaller objects still pose a significant threat. In the face of potentially catastrophic asteroid impacts, scientists are racing to develop innovative solutions to protect our planet.
In New Mexico, scientists are exploring a futuristic solution to defend Earth against asteroid threats: harnessing X-ray blasts from nuclear explosions, the Guardian reported. Scientists at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque have successfully demonstrated a revolutionary method to deflect incoming asteroids using nuclear explosions. For the experiment, researchers harnessed the power of X-rays from a nuclear blast to vaporise the surface of a nearby asteroid.
The process works by unleashing an immense pulse of radiation, heating the asteroid's surface to tens of thousands of degrees. This creates a rapidly expanding ball of gas that can nudge the asteroid off its catastrophic course. By precisely calculating the blast's impact, scientists believe this technique can effectively push threatening asteroids away from Earth, potentially saving humanity from doomsday.
"The primary mechanism involves using X-rays to rapidly heat the target surface, causing it to vaporize and expand into the adjacent vacuum. The expanding gas pushes against the asteroid, transferring momentum (in the opposite direction)," authors of the study published Monday in the journal Nature Physics wrote.
Scientists noted that the nuclear option is for larger asteroids, particularly when time is short. Researchers believe this strategy can effectively deflect asteroids up to 2.5 miles wide, although this isn't a rigid limit.
“If there is enough warning time, one can certainly deflect larger asteroids,” Dr Nathan Moore, the first author of the study said.
Mr Moore and his team plan to conduct further experimental tests to refine the X-ray deflection technique, building on their initial success. Their goal is to enhance the method's effectiveness through additional laboratory experiments. Ultimately, they envision a space-based demonstration, similar to NASA's DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) mission, to test the technique on a real asteroid.
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