Another round of musical chairs in Pakistan's cricketing leadership completed on Monday as the cricket board announced the sacking of Mohammad Rizwan as the team's ODI captain. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) named fast bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi as the new skipper in the format, replacing the wicket-keeper batter Rizwan who had only took up the leadership role in the 50-over format last October. Surprisingly, Shaheen will now be leading the team for next month's three-match ODI series against South Africa, marking a third change in the format's captaincy in the past 12 months. The 25-year-old replaced Mohammad Rizwan who took over as ODI skipper last October following Babar Azam's resignation. Under Rizwan's leadership, Pakistan didn't perform well in the Champions Trophy this year, finishing bottom in Group A, behind India, New Zealand and Bangladesh. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said Shaheen's appointment came after a meeting in Islamabad. ...
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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