Science & Technology

Could asteroid dust fight climate change ?

By T.K. Randall
October 1, 2012 ·  14 comments

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Few topics have been discussed as much or have generated as much controversy as climate change. With global temperatures set to soar within the next 100 years, scientists have been looking for more effective solutions to tackle the global warming crisis. Now researchers in Scotland have come up with a novel new idea for a way to reduce the amount of sunlight hitting the Earth - a giant dust cloud generated by an asteroid in space.

The technique would involve installing a device on to a near-Earth asteroid that would hurl material out in to space and create a vast cloud of dust, blotting out the Sun. Scientists have openly admitted however that the concept would not only prove risky but that there would be no way to properly test the concept before going ahead with it.[!gad]Few topics have been discussed as much or have generated as much controversy as climate change. With global temperatures set to soar within the next 100 years, scientists have been looking for more effective solutions to tackle the global warming crisis. Now researchers in Scotland have come up with a novel new idea for a way to reduce the amount of sunlight hitting the Earth - a giant dust cloud generated by an asteroid in space.

The technique would involve installing a device on to a near-Earth asteroid that would hurl material out in to space and create a vast cloud of dust, blotting out the Sun. Scientists have openly admitted however that the concept would not only prove risky but that there would be no way to properly test the concept before going ahead with it.

Source: Space.com | Comments (14)

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