In a slenderly strange crook on the news report of the tumid film " Armageddon , " Russian scientist have announced that they like to use spacefaring missile to destruct Apophis , an asteroid set to pass incredibly tight to Earth in the year 2036 .
A troubling development of the Cold War , intercontinental ballistic missile ( ICBMs ) are already designed to send multiple nuclear warheads extremely long distances . Although they are not yet quick to travel through space , a syndicate of researchers at the Makeyev Rocket Design Bureau are planning to adjust them for this purpose , according to Russian news agencyTASS .
As ICBMs are always fueled , ready to launch at the push of a button , they would be able to fulfill an incoming asteroid at a import ’s card , unlike other missile type that take several days ’ worth of fueling . Sabit Saitgarayev , the lead investigator on the project , says that he hopes to be able-bodied to apply each ICBM to destroy near - Earth physical object ( NEOs ) up to 50 meters ( 164 feet ) in size .
AsApophiscomes in at 325 meters ( 1,066 feet ) , it seems that several will be needed . Design work on the task has start , although how much funding it will ask remain unknown , and authorization from the Russian authorities is still required .
This announcement observe on from a recent declaration by the Russian Academy of Sciences , stating itwished to get together with NASAand its new established Planetary Defense Coordination Office ( PDCO ) , a computer program designed to identify and trackdangerous NEOs .
A Minuteman III ICBM being set in motion from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in 1982 . Everett Historical / Shutterstock
The international community of interests have long been wary about weaponize distance , as observe in theOuter Space Treatyof 1967 , so they may be touch on by this intercontinental ballistic missile first step . After all , so much could go unseasonable : The inadvertent explosion of a nuclear warhead in our upper atmosphere , for instance , would stimulate a global ecological catastrophe .
Apophis was first discovered in 2004 . At the time , this chunk of rock ‘n’ roll caused a abbreviated full point of concern : Initialtrajectory estimatesseemed to show that it had a 2.7 per centum hazard of hitting Earth or the Moon in 2029 . This theory was get rid of by further calculations , and NASA concluded that it would in the end authorize by our planet at a space of31,000 kilometers(19,300 miles ) , close to 12 times closer to Earth than our own Moon .
There was still a prospect that it would pass so closely to our world that the gravitational field would " poke at " Apophis , so that when it swung by again in 2036 it wouldimpact Earth . However , scientists finally worked out that the luck of this happeningwas fundamentally zero , and it would miss us in 2036 by 20 million kilometers ( 12.4 million mi ) .
If Apophis everimpacted Earth , it would release20 times the energyof our most muscular atomic weapon in an instant . This would still not be enough todarken the skyor freeze the world ; a medium - sized asteroid of about one kilometer ( 0.62 sea mile ) would be require for that form of Revelation .
