To be honest, the asteroid belt is a bit confusing. There, large rocks fly around at high speeds, sometimes being thrown towards various planets, usually causing a commotion. In this episode of Dead Planets Society, hosts Chelsea White and Leah Crane decide to embark on a solar system cleansing mission to unify the asteroid belt into a single rocky world.
But it’s not as simple as stirring up an asteroid belt and hoping they all collide. In order for asteroids to stick together rather than create more asteroids, they must collide at relatively slow velocities. A giant funnel might work to ensure they all squish together. Alternatively, injecting airgel throughout the asteroid belt could slow it down and eventually bring it to a gradual halt. However, the ring itself could make exploration of the outer solar system difficult and could have a negative impact on Earth’s wildlife. Too.
Leah and Chelsea were also joined by planetary astronomers on this episode Andy Rivkin At Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, cut volk at the University of Arizona.
Dead Planets Society is a podcast that takes wild ideas about how to tinker with the universe, from extinguishing the sun to causing a gravitational wave apocalypse, and applies them to the laws of physics to see how they fare.
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Source: www.newscientist.com
