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Published 19:30 IST, December 10th 2020

Lab developing a new device to prevent asteroid collision with Earth in future

A team of researchers from a lab in Riga Technical University is developing a device that can destroy harmful and threat imposing asteroids.

Reported by: Arpa C
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The Riga Technical University has made a modern discovery. A team of scientists is working to develop a device that can destroy looming asteroids in the future. If set, the machine will come with an advanced timer which is built in the lab of the Latvian start-up company Eventech.  This timer is, at present, is used to track satellites.

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If such a device is successfully developed, there will be less chance of an asteroid hitting Earth as the scientists will be able to keep the Earth safe and destroy or divert the asteroid.

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Eevntech won the European Space Agency contract to develop this unique item in their lab.  These timers will be used to study the chances of asteroids impacting our Earth and diverting its route to keep the Earth safe from meteorite explosion.

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Also read: Earth Inching Closer To Milky Way's Supermassive Black Hole At 7kms: Study

According to Jakartapost.com, NASA is planning to launch its first part of the AIDSA mission in space in 2021. The Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment mission, which is also known as the Double Asteroid Redirection Test or DART, will be launched using a Falcon 9 rocket. This Falcon rocket comes from the SpaceX company, owned by Elon Musk.

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The device is a 500 kg probe with a camera that will fly towards the Didyamos asteroid. According to National Geographic, the Didyamos asteroid will pass near the Earth in 2123. The probe will smash into the asteroid in space.  The main objective of this probe is to divert the path of the said asteroid to ensure it does not collide with the Earth.

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NASA is planning to find a way to divert asteroids hitting Earth, and the DART mission is a part of their large plan. Additionally, Eventech is also developing the times which will be used for the next HIRA mission in space. The HIRA mission is a follow-up of the DART mission, which will be launched after five years.

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Eventech timers have a huge legacy behind them. These are a part of the Baltic States which had launched the first human-made satellite Sputnik in 1957. The device is able to record any measurement within a small fraction of one trillionth of a second or a picosecond which will help the astronomers to measure distance up to two millimetres of precision from the Earth.

Nearly ten such timers are produced each year, and these are used for satellites and observatories.

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19:30 IST, December 10th 2020