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Could be the beginning of a novel halfway between science fiction and dystopiainstead we are talking about a study carried out byUniversity of Utah For intercept a fraction of sunlight before it reaches our planettrying to slow down the heating in progress.
According to scientists, in fact, blocking would be enough between 1 and 2% of solar radiation that affects our planet every day mitigate the effects of global warming.
The research team analyzed different powdersregistering them properties of the particles, and assuming their quantities and launch orbits which would have been more suitable for shading the Earth.
I study, “Dust as a solar shield” was published in the specialized journal Journals.
The authors found that throwing dust from Earth at a way station at the “Lagrange point” L1 between the Earth and the Sun, it would be the most effective, but it would require astronomical costs and efforts.
An alternative, economically more sustainable, would be use moon dust throwing it from our satellite to the Sun.
As much as I can seem extremeclouds of dust around in space are phenomena very common: Planet formation itself began with a handful of astronomical dust forming increasingly dense rings around a star.
The gravitational force of the star keeps the space dust close to it, making it compact and form a new planet over thousands of years.
The astronomers of the American University have therefore hypothesized to use a phenomenon that I know well, space dust suspended in spaceas means of combating global warming.
“That was the seed of the idea; if we took a small amount of material and put it on a special orbit between the Earth and the Sun and broke it up, we could block a lot of sunlight with a small amount of mass.”explained Ben Bromley, professor of physics and astronomy and lead author of the study.
“It’s amazing to think how moon dust, which took more than four billion years to generate, can help slow down the increase in the temperature of the Earth, a problem created in less than 300 years“added study co-author Scott Kenyon.
The overall effectiveness of a shield will depend on its ability to sustain an orbit that casts a shadow on the Earth; in that regard Sameer Khan, an undergraduate student and co-author of the study, led the initial exploration on the orbits they could hold the powder in place long enough to provide adequate shading.
“Since we know the positions and masses of the major celestial bodies in our solar system, we can simply use the laws of gravity to plot the position of a simulated sunshield over time for several orbits”Khan said.
From the analyzes carried out by the student, two scenarios have shown promise.
In the first, astronomers have placed a space platform at the Lagrange point L1the closest of the points between the Earth and the Sun, where le gravitational forces are balanced.
Objects located at Lagrange points tend to stay along a path between the two celestial bodies, which is why, for example, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is located at L2, a Lagrange point on the opposite side of the Earth.
In computer simulations, the researchers they fired test particles along the L1 orbitincluding the position of the Earth, the Sun, the Moon and other planets in the solar system, marking where the particles have scattered.
The authors found that, with an accurate throw, theDust tends to follow a path between the Earth and the Suneffectively creating shadow, but for an extremely short period of timedue to various external agents (solar winds, radiation and gravity within the solar system).
To keep a possible sun screen is activeany L1 platform it should have an endless supply of powder to launch into orbit every few days.
“It was quite difficult to get the shield to stay on L1 long enough to cast a significant shadow. This shouldn’t be surprising, however, since L1 is an unstable equilibrium point. Even the slightest deviation in the sunshield’s orbit can cause it to drift out of place quicklyso our simulations had to be extremely accurate”Khan explained.
In the second scenario, it was assumed to shoot the moon dustwhose intrinsic properties make it exceptionally suitable as a sun shieldfrom our satellite to the Sun.
The simulations tested how, by doing so, the dust was dispersed along various paths until it found excellent trajectories directed towards L1going to form an effective sun shield.
Furthermore, much less was needed compared to the first scenario.
The authors emphasized that the study, currently at least, only wanted to explore the potential of this strategyrather than actually examining its feasibility.
“We are not experts on climate change or the rocket science needed to move mass from one place to another. We’re just exploring different types of dust on a variety of orbits to see how effective this approach might be. We don’t want to miss a turning point for such a critical issue”Bromley clarified.
The scientist then wanted to say a few words to dispel any fear of a blanket of dust so thick as to make our planet cold and uninhabitable.
Solar radiation, explained the astronomer, tends to scatter dust particles throughout the solar system. It goes without saying then that any sun shield would be temporary and the screen particles would not fall to the Earth.
“Our strategy could be an option to tackle climate change”Bromley concluded, “only if what we need was more time.”
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