Spacecraft blocking meteorites rushing towards the earth

British scientists claim that they have successfully built a spacecraft capable of deflecting the path of dangerous meteorites.

Until now, flights into space to prevent meteorites from entering the globe only appeared in Hollywood movies. However, scientists argue that it is only a matter of time before meteors fly or hit the earth.

The US Aerospace Agency (NASA) has set up a program to monitor every object in the sky that can move near the globe. According to NASA scientists, there are more than 100,000 near-Earth objects large enough to destroy a city. But so far NASA has only discovered 6,363 such objects.

A soccer-sized meteorite can ruin a large city if it hits the earth. In 1908, a meteorite of that size exploded above Tunguska Lake in Siberia, Russia. The explosion destroyed about 1,200 square kilometers of forest. After about 100 years the earth suffered a similar collision.

Artwork of a meteorite near the globe.(Photo: timeinc.net)

To prevent the disasters that meteorites could cause, engineers of EADS Astrium - a company that designs and manufactures spacecraft for NASA and the European Space Agency - have designed what they call ' gravity tractor '.

The program was conducted in the city of Stevenage, county Hertfordshire, England. The details are published only weeks after the discovery of a meteorite or a brush star into Jupiter and leaving an earth-sized hole in the planet's atmosphere.

The spacecraft - weighing about 10 tons - will be launched when a meteorite flies towards the earth. It will fly in parallel with ' heavenly rock '. From that position, it triggers an attractive force on the meteorite. Gravity pulls meteorite towards the ship. After many years, the ' gravity tractor ' will change the meteor's trajectory so that it does not rush into the globe.

The team believes that their spacecraft can deflect the orbits of meteorites up to 400 meters in diameter. Such large meteorites had 100,000 times the destructive power of the atomic bomb that the US threw at Hiroshima in Japan in 1945.

Dr. Ralph Cordey, director of science and exploration of EADS Astrium, told Telegraph: ' Our spacecraft operates according to basic physics principles. Every object with mass has its own gravity. That gravitational force affects the surrounding objects. The spacecraft can deflect the flight path of large objects, with a diameter of 300 to 400 meters. These often-sized meteorites move in the solar system at a speed of 10 km / h, so the gravity tractor must be launched at least 20 years before the time when the asteroid will hit the earth .

However, launching a spacecraft into space to prevent meteorites needs approval from the international community.