View of Earth from the moon, taken during the Apollo 11 space mission. New study scientists argue that protecting Earth with Moon dust could be an option for tackling climate change.
Nationalgeographic.co.id – On a cold winter day, the warmth of the sun is certainly very much welcomed by all of us. But as humanity emits more and more greenhouse gases, the earth’s atmosphere traps more and more of the sun’s energy and continues to increase the earth’s temperature. This is not something we all expect.
One strategy to reverse this trend is to intercept a fraction of the sun’s rays before they reach our planet. While some argue that this is a dangerous idea, many scientists also support it.
For decades, scientists have considered using screens, objects, or dust particles to block enough solar radiation—between 1 and 2%—to reduce the effects of global warming.
A University of Utah-led study explored the potential use of dust as a sun shield. They analyzed the properties of the dust particles, the amount of dust, and the most suitable orbit to house Earth.
The authors found that launching dust from Earth onto the station ramp at the “Lagrange Point” between Earth and the sun (L1) would be most effective but would require enormous cost and effort.
The alternative is to use transformation (moon dust). The authors argue that blasting moon dust from the moon could instead be a cheap and effective way to shade Earth.
The team of astronomers applied techniques used to study planet formation around distant stars, their usual focus of research. Planet formation is a messy process that gives rise to large amounts of astronomical dust that can form rings around their host star.
These rings intercept light from the central star and re-radiate it in a way that we can detect it on Earth. One way to find stars that form new planets is to look for these dusty rings.
Illustration of the use of dust launched from the surface of the moon or from space stations located between the Earth and the sun can reduce solar radiation enough to reduce the impact of climate change.
“That was the seed of the idea; if we take a small amount of matter and put it in a special orbit between the Earth and the sun and break it apart, we can block a lot of sunlight with a little mass,” said Ben Bromley, professor of physics and astronomy and lead author of the study.
“It’s amazing to contemplate how moon dust—which takes more than four billion years to produce—could help slow Earth’s temperature rise, a problem that took us less than 300 years to produce,” said Scott Kenyon, a member of the study’s co-author of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian.
A paper on the results of this study was published on February 8, 2023, in the journal PLOS Climate with the title “Dust as a solar shield”.
