Missiles planned by China to deflect an asteroid

China wants to intervene on the asteroid Bennu which could strike the Earth within a hundred years. She plans to send missiles on this celestial body in order to deviate its trajectory.

In order not to let future generations be surprised by this possible scenario, the Chinese space force plans to send Long March 5 rockets of 992 tons each, these are also often used by the Asian country. It would thus take at least 23 of these launchers sent at the same time, to succeed in deviating the trajectory of the asteroid by about 9000 kilometers from its planned route and away from the Earth.

For the moment, Nasa estimates that the asteroid represents a low danger since according to calculations, the probability of an impact is 1/2700 and that between the years 2175 and 2199. If this catastrophic scenario has very little However, the result would be disastrous due to the kinetic energy of the impact between Benny and Earth estimated at 1200 megatons. Which would represent a power 80,000 times greater than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, as explained Futura Science.

No date has yet been put forward by China but next November, an identical mission has been scheduled by NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). Their target is an asteroid in the Didymos system, which is 11 million km from our planet. Space agencies hope to analyze “the effect of this impact on the trajectory of the object”.

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