Could a “Deathstar” someday defend Earth against incoming threats from space?
Last Friday, asteroid 2012 DA14 — half a football field long and weighing about 190,000 tons — missed plane Earth in a fly-by. Far smaller and therefore harder to detect was the 50 foot long asteroid that injured more than 1,000 Russians when it stuck a few hours earlier.
What can we do about these dangerous asteroid threats? Options on the table include detonating a nuclear weapon near the surface or below a threatening object, “Armageddon” style, or slamming a spacecraft into it to knock it off course.
Two California scientists have a better idea for how to save the world: a Deathstar, straight out of “Star Wars.”
Philip Lubin of the University of California Santa Barbara and Gary Hughes of California Polytechnic State University believe a directed-energy orbital defense system could eliminate a threat on the scale of 2012 DA14 in an hour.
Read more at Fox News.