Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I mean, it's going pretty good. We didn't get hit
by an asteroid, so I take that as a pretty
good day.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
It'd be a bad day to get hit by an
asteroid at any point. I'm seeing this chance from scientists
that they say that there's a four percent chance of
this asteroid hitting the Moon in twenty thirty two. Now
I have to ask, before we get into the details
of this specific asteroid, how can scientists or anyone for
(00:27):
that matter, seven years down the line say, oh, it
looks like this asteroid is actually going to collide with
the Moon. How does that happen?
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Well, it's pretty it's pretty good news that we can
track these big asteroids, not like the small one that's
zipped by Antarctica the other day and astronomers only had
a couple of hours to notify it. The small ones.
With our current technology and telescopes like the James Web
and the Rubin that's they're harder to find these small ones.
There's millions of asteroids in our solar system. A lot
(00:58):
of people don't think that. They think that there's just
a couple ones, like in that Bruce Willis and that
Affleck movie Armaged in. No, there's millions of asteroids in
our solar system, and we can't map our entire solar
system yet, which is a bad thing, but we have
been able to spot the big ones. So the good
news is because of technology like AI, when you identify
(01:21):
where they are, you can then track their orbits and
the computers and the sciencest nerds are able to then
program it to see if it has a four percent
chance of hitting the mood in a couple of years.
The more time we have the better, because we as
a country do actually have the technology and have demonstrated
(01:43):
the capability to deflect asteroids and change the trajectory of
their orbit. And you don't have to do it in
a huge way either. If you change the trajectory even
in a small way, then you are, you know, potentially
dramatically reducing the percentage chances that it has of striking
(02:05):
the Moon or if it was another scenario of striking
the Earth.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
It's very interesting that you put it that way, right,
Millions of asteroids out there. Kevin SURREALI most of Hello
Future podcast on the iHeartRadio app joining us here today.
I'm looking at this particular asteroid twenty twenty four y
R four is its name, and they're saying a four
percent chance of hitting the Moon. That's not insignificant, right,
a four percent chance because you know they give it
(02:31):
a range, but four percent chance. This is kind of like, okay,
we need this. You know, not only is this on
a radar, but we're talking about ways that maybe we
could alter this particular asteroid's orbit. Is that kind of
what I'm seeing here?
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yeah, for sure. Just three quick points that I would make.
Everyone knows what the Moon looks like, and there's a
bunch of craters on it. It's been hit before, It's
been hit a lot of times. And if our planet
didn't have nature and oceans and you know, trees on it,
you would be able to see all of the craters
on our planet as well. There's even one in Arizona.
(03:05):
The second point I would make is that we have
natural Our planet has a natural capability to fend off
the small asteroids and these burn up in the atmosphere.
But then you have other situations like happened in twenty
twelve or twenty thirteen where it hit you know, and
far eastern Europe where it took out a hit in
(03:29):
a low civilized population, but it sent eleven hundred people
to the population to the hospital because they have burn marks.
The windows were shattered in small towns. So these small
asteroids can have really bad effects. It's not just the
ones that are the dinosaur killers. The third thing is,
(03:49):
and you might have seen this in the headlines about
whether or not we should nuke this asteroid that could
hit the Moon to demonstrate that we have the capability
to deflect asteroids and change their trajectory. Yes, we could
send a nuke to nuke it and hit it and
move it off of its course. There's two other options
that we could do. We could send a laser at it,
which would be interesting, and then the cheapest, most cost
(04:11):
effective way would be to take a satellite that you
can just it's like on a kamikaze mission or like
a junk car for lack of a better analogy, and
whack it into this thing and nudge it, give it
a little love tap that would jult it off of
its trajectory to change the trajectory. That's actually the cheapest version.
(04:32):
This is according to the head of the Asteroid Institute,
which I'm glad we have one after these reports, and
it's run by doctor edlu He spent six months aboard
the International Space Station, so I like to think he
knows what he's talking about.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Yeah, that's a good point. KEVIN'SERREALI a futurist joining us
here on the show today. I would have to ask
about the nuke situation, right, Would this be solely an
American idea? Would this be something that we could work
together with other countries in their technology or their teams
to try to figure this out? And when you're anticipating
(05:08):
a twenty thirty two impact day, if you know the
four percent chance comes true of this asteroid starts, you know,
kind of leaning toward the moon, how soon do you
try to find this thing so you can you know,
send the nukeup into the sky and try to blow
it up. I guess would be the goal.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Yeah, that's a great question. When should you do a
blast off mission in order to jolt it? Well, the
good news is that the earlier you do had some
more chances you have if it goes wrong. But also
the orbital windows we talk a lot about going to
Mars and going to the Moon and the timing of
all of that. For where we are in our orbit,
(05:51):
the Earth moves like sixty five thousand miles per hour
around the Sun, so we're zooming through it, and so
all of that orbital launches are taken into account by
the astronomers. The second question, the second part of this
answer is as it relates to why we should care.
I mean, there could be people out there like me
who I was thinking to myself, why do I care
(06:13):
if an asteroid hits the Moon. Well, one, it's a
good test ground for if Lord forbid it wouldever hit
the Earth. We want to demonstrate. The more times we
can demonstrate we have the ability, the better. But then
also as we build infrastructure on the Moon, especially if
we start putting data centers on the Moon or if
we have more of our communications systems up there in satellite,
(06:34):
we want to make sure that we can protect the
infrastructure that we're building. And then my favorite part of
your question, which was a question that I had when
I was reporting this out for my podcast Hello Future,
was who gets to press the button whether you're doing
a laser, a kamikaze mission, or sending a nuclear weapon.
The US is the most advanced country as it comes
to space, and thankfully for that, but China is not
(06:57):
far behind, and so there are not an off rules
for the world for what should happen and who gets
to press the button unless you go through the United Nations.
But the only thing the UN says is that there
will be a commission that talks about it. So not
to get political about the success rate of the UN,
but I think when you have when you're talking about
(07:20):
saving the planet and a species from an asteroid, we
probably want to have the US take the lead. I
would argue, then other countries, some of whom are bad actors.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Yeah, that's a good point, and it's one of those
things who can we trust and is there a way
that we can have synergy on a project that I
think the entire Earth would actually all have a common goal.
You know, there's not a lot of things on planet
Earth where everybody wants the same thing to happen. This
would be one of the few tell me about this
(07:50):
asteroid that you mentioned that kind of just went past Antarctica.
Didn't hear much about this in the news, But this
is one of the closest encounters we've actually had with
an ash rooyd that we have been able to track
that didn't actually hit us.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Correct, This is I think it's like the second closest,
and it came just about three hundred miles from US,
and it caught astronomers off guard, which is why it
got so much attention. It would not have taken out
the planet. It would not really have had honestly hitting Antarctica.
I mean, no offense to the penguins, but it would
not have had that much of a negative impact on
(08:26):
human civilization. But the good the reason I think it
warrants discussion is because it reminds us that with these
new telescopes, we are able to see more than we've
ever seen. So it's not that they're happening more frequently,
it's just that our technology is tracking it better. And
(08:46):
I believe that that's great thing. I think a lot
of people like I don't know. I'm a millennial. I
grew up with Bill Ninda science guy, and I grew
up with the Magic school Bus when I was a kid,
and I was taught that the Solar System was just
the Sun and nine planets, and there was an asteroid
belt and each of the planets had a couple of moons.
That's really not even the tip of the iceberg in
(09:09):
any way, shape or form. Our Solar system is built
of tens of millions of rocks, summer planets, summer moons,
summer asteroids. But there's millions, tens of millions, okay, and
so we are just a speck of sand in our
own neighborhood. And I think that the more our telescopes
(09:29):
are able to map our Solar System, not to mention
other galaxies and there's beautiful images that we see, the
better it is for us on our planet because we
can understand the resources that are quite literally not even
in our backyard, but within our own home in our
Solar system.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
That's great stuff. You can hear Kevin SURRELLI on his
podcast Hello Future on the iHeartRadio app Kevin, this is
always fun we get a chance to chat. Thanks so
much for educating us on asteroids today and have a
great weekend.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Thank you to my friend Billie
I mean, it's going pretty good. We didn't get hit
by an asteroid, so I take that as a pretty
good day.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
It'd be a bad day to get hit by an
asteroid at any point. I'm seeing this chance from scientists
that they say that there's a four percent chance of
this asteroid hitting the Moon in twenty thirty two. Now
I have to ask, before we get into the details
of this specific asteroid, how can scientists or anyone for
(00:27):
that matter, seven years down the line say, oh, it
looks like this asteroid is actually going to collide with
the Moon. How does that happen?
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Well, it's pretty it's pretty good news that we can
track these big asteroids, not like the small one that's
zipped by Antarctica the other day and astronomers only had
a couple of hours to notify it. The small ones.
With our current technology and telescopes like the James Web
and the Rubin that's they're harder to find these small ones.
There's millions of asteroids in our solar system. A lot
(00:58):
of people don't think that. They think that there's just
a couple ones, like in that Bruce Willis and that
Affleck movie Armaged in. No, there's millions of asteroids in
our solar system, and we can't map our entire solar
system yet, which is a bad thing, but we have
been able to spot the big ones. So the good
news is because of technology like AI, when you identify
(01:21):
where they are, you can then track their orbits and
the computers and the sciencest nerds are able to then
program it to see if it has a four percent
chance of hitting the mood in a couple of years.
The more time we have the better, because we as
a country do actually have the technology and have demonstrated
(01:43):
the capability to deflect asteroids and change the trajectory of
their orbit. And you don't have to do it in
a huge way either. If you change the trajectory even
in a small way, then you are, you know, potentially
dramatically reducing the percentage chances that it has of striking
(02:05):
the Moon or if it was another scenario of striking
the Earth.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
It's very interesting that you put it that way, right,
Millions of asteroids out there. Kevin SURREALI most of Hello
Future podcast on the iHeartRadio app joining us here today.
I'm looking at this particular asteroid twenty twenty four y
R four is its name, and they're saying a four
percent chance of hitting the Moon. That's not insignificant, right,
a four percent chance because you know they give it
(02:31):
a range, but four percent chance. This is kind of like, okay,
we need this. You know, not only is this on
a radar, but we're talking about ways that maybe we
could alter this particular asteroid's orbit. Is that kind of
what I'm seeing here?
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yeah, for sure. Just three quick points that I would make.
Everyone knows what the Moon looks like, and there's a
bunch of craters on it. It's been hit before, It's
been hit a lot of times. And if our planet
didn't have nature and oceans and you know, trees on it,
you would be able to see all of the craters
on our planet as well. There's even one in Arizona.
(03:05):
The second point I would make is that we have
natural Our planet has a natural capability to fend off
the small asteroids and these burn up in the atmosphere.
But then you have other situations like happened in twenty
twelve or twenty thirteen where it hit you know, and
far eastern Europe where it took out a hit in
(03:29):
a low civilized population, but it sent eleven hundred people
to the population to the hospital because they have burn marks.
The windows were shattered in small towns. So these small
asteroids can have really bad effects. It's not just the
ones that are the dinosaur killers. The third thing is,
(03:49):
and you might have seen this in the headlines about
whether or not we should nuke this asteroid that could
hit the Moon to demonstrate that we have the capability
to deflect asteroids and change their trajectory. Yes, we could
send a nuke to nuke it and hit it and
move it off of its course. There's two other options
that we could do. We could send a laser at it,
which would be interesting, and then the cheapest, most cost
(04:11):
effective way would be to take a satellite that you
can just it's like on a kamikaze mission or like
a junk car for lack of a better analogy, and
whack it into this thing and nudge it, give it
a little love tap that would jult it off of
its trajectory to change the trajectory. That's actually the cheapest version.
(04:32):
This is according to the head of the Asteroid Institute,
which I'm glad we have one after these reports, and
it's run by doctor edlu He spent six months aboard
the International Space Station, so I like to think he
knows what he's talking about.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Yeah, that's a good point. KEVIN'SERREALI a futurist joining us
here on the show today. I would have to ask
about the nuke situation, right, Would this be solely an
American idea? Would this be something that we could work
together with other countries in their technology or their teams
to try to figure this out? And when you're anticipating
(05:08):
a twenty thirty two impact day, if you know the
four percent chance comes true of this asteroid starts, you know,
kind of leaning toward the moon, how soon do you
try to find this thing so you can you know,
send the nukeup into the sky and try to blow
it up. I guess would be the goal.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Yeah, that's a great question. When should you do a
blast off mission in order to jolt it? Well, the
good news is that the earlier you do had some
more chances you have if it goes wrong. But also
the orbital windows we talk a lot about going to
Mars and going to the Moon and the timing of
all of that. For where we are in our orbit,
(05:51):
the Earth moves like sixty five thousand miles per hour
around the Sun, so we're zooming through it, and so
all of that orbital launches are taken into account by
the astronomers. The second question, the second part of this
answer is as it relates to why we should care.
I mean, there could be people out there like me
who I was thinking to myself, why do I care
(06:13):
if an asteroid hits the Moon. Well, one, it's a
good test ground for if Lord forbid it wouldever hit
the Earth. We want to demonstrate. The more times we
can demonstrate we have the ability, the better. But then
also as we build infrastructure on the Moon, especially if
we start putting data centers on the Moon or if
we have more of our communications systems up there in satellite,
(06:34):
we want to make sure that we can protect the
infrastructure that we're building. And then my favorite part of
your question, which was a question that I had when
I was reporting this out for my podcast Hello Future,
was who gets to press the button whether you're doing
a laser, a kamikaze mission, or sending a nuclear weapon.
The US is the most advanced country as it comes
to space, and thankfully for that, but China is not
(06:57):
far behind, and so there are not an off rules
for the world for what should happen and who gets
to press the button unless you go through the United Nations.
But the only thing the UN says is that there
will be a commission that talks about it. So not
to get political about the success rate of the UN,
but I think when you have when you're talking about
(07:20):
saving the planet and a species from an asteroid, we
probably want to have the US take the lead. I
would argue, then other countries, some of whom are bad actors.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Yeah, that's a good point, and it's one of those
things who can we trust and is there a way
that we can have synergy on a project that I
think the entire Earth would actually all have a common goal.
You know, there's not a lot of things on planet
Earth where everybody wants the same thing to happen. This
would be one of the few tell me about this
(07:50):
asteroid that you mentioned that kind of just went past Antarctica.
Didn't hear much about this in the news, But this
is one of the closest encounters we've actually had with
an ash rooyd that we have been able to track
that didn't actually hit us.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Correct, This is I think it's like the second closest,
and it came just about three hundred miles from US,
and it caught astronomers off guard, which is why it
got so much attention. It would not have taken out
the planet. It would not really have had honestly hitting Antarctica.
I mean, no offense to the penguins, but it would
not have had that much of a negative impact on
(08:26):
human civilization. But the good the reason I think it
warrants discussion is because it reminds us that with these
new telescopes, we are able to see more than we've
ever seen. So it's not that they're happening more frequently,
it's just that our technology is tracking it better. And
(08:46):
I believe that that's great thing. I think a lot
of people like I don't know. I'm a millennial. I
grew up with Bill Ninda science guy, and I grew
up with the Magic school Bus when I was a kid,
and I was taught that the Solar System was just
the Sun and nine planets, and there was an asteroid
belt and each of the planets had a couple of moons.
That's really not even the tip of the iceberg in
(09:09):
any way, shape or form. Our Solar system is built
of tens of millions of rocks, summer planets, summer moons,
summer asteroids. But there's millions, tens of millions, okay, and
so we are just a speck of sand in our
own neighborhood. And I think that the more our telescopes
(09:29):
are able to map our Solar System, not to mention
other galaxies and there's beautiful images that we see, the
better it is for us on our planet because we
can understand the resources that are quite literally not even
in our backyard, but within our own home in our
Solar system.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
That's great stuff. You can hear Kevin SURRELLI on his
podcast Hello Future on the iHeartRadio app Kevin, this is
always fun we get a chance to chat. Thanks so
much for educating us on asteroids today and have a
great weekend.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Thank you to my friend Billie
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