Giant Solar Shield Tethered To Asteroid Could Slow Down Climate Change On Earth
Scientists want to deploy an umbrella for Earth to protect it from the Sun. Yep, you read that right. One day, Earth could have its own giant solar shield tethered to an asteroid.
According to István Szapudi, an astronomer at the University of Hawaiʻi Institute for Astronomy, a solar shield might be a viable solution to protect Earth from the Sun's harsh rays. The astronomer believes that it could also help reduce global warming on the planet.
How would the solar shield work?
This isn't the first time such an idea has been pitched. The concept has many limitations, the biggest one being the shield's weight. In outer space, the weight needs to be calculated so that it can counteract gravitational forces and withstand solar winds and pressure.
Szapudi's recent observations intends to push this idea from mere theories into a possibility. Firstly, the astronomer suggests that instead of using a standalone shield, it could be tethered to a counterweight towards the Sun. Secondly, Szapudi suggests that this counterweight could be a captured asteroid. By bringing in an asteroid, only the shield structure would need to be dispatched from Earth.
This has the potential to lower the total mass required for the shield. In addition, it could also be cheaper and faster to build than other shield designs. Estimates suggest that reducing just 1.7% of solar radiation can help prevent a radical jump in global temperatures.
Szapudi claims that the shield and the counterweight together should weigh about 3.5 million tones, 100 times lighter than earlier shield designs. The estimates also revealed that only 1% of it, 35,000 tons, would be the actual shield launched from Earth. The rest of it could be made up of lunar dust and asteroid materials.
However, this seems unlikely in the near-future. Present day rockets cannot carry more than 50 tons to low-Earth orbit.
The study was published in the journal PNAS recently. What do you think about this possibility? Let us know in the comments below. For more in the world of technology and science, keep reading Indiatimes.com.