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Could asteroid dust fight climate change ?

Posted on Monday, 1 October, 2012 | Comment icon

14 comments | News tip by: Render

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Scientists have come up with a radical new way in which to help reduce the effects of global warming.

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.

"The researchers calculate that the largest near-Earth asteroid, 1036 Ganymed, could maintain a dust cloud large enough to block out 6."

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Source: Space.com

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Recent comments on this story

#5 Posted by csspwns on 2 October, 2012, 1:51

i say its to dangerous, it might hit a town or something

#6 Posted by The Id3al Experience on 2 October, 2012, 3:45

I know myabe we can stop with all the greed, get rid of oil, and start using the other great inventions hiding from the pulic for so many years. Water cars. Free wasteless Engery To name a couple.

#7 Posted by Khaleid on 2 October, 2012, 5:05

The whole "buying time" approach won't work. Knowing people, once a temporary fix has been found, efforts for a permanent one will be put on the long run.

#8 Posted by TheMolePatrol on 2 October, 2012, 5:46

Harness an asteriod to hit Earth to "correct" global warming?? So does the opposite apply, where if we have global cooling then we fire a big nuke off? Sounds like a one-step-forward, two-steps-back scenario. Isn't an asteriod impact one of the theories many believe eventually wiped out the dinosaurs? We're so close to marketable clean energy I can taste it. This seems like it'd make a better movie.

#9 Posted by Render on 2 October, 2012, 11:47

The whole "buying time" approach won't work. Knowing people, once a temporary fix has been found, efforts for a permanent one will be put on the long run. Why assume there is a permanent fix on an ever changing planet in an ever changing universe?

#10 Posted by wolfknight on 2 October, 2012, 12:33

It all sound a little to Scifi for me. How are they goimg to be able to control a dust cloud?

#11 Posted by Hilander on 2 October, 2012, 17:36

They are going to do something they will not have any control over once it is started. Too much of a risk.

#12 Posted by John Rayne on 3 October, 2012, 3:39

When are we going to stop trying to change/fix the world/universe and start adapting to what we got and fix ourselves.

#13 Posted by Khaleid on 3 October, 2012, 6:36

Why assume there is a permanent fix on an ever changing planet in an ever changing universe? Good point, however, my comment on human nature still stands...

#14 Posted by Render on 3 October, 2012, 7:26

When are we going to stop trying to change/fix the world/universe and start adapting to what we got and fix ourselves. \Adapting is exactly what we are doing, with technology and progress.

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