NASA Preparing to Deflect Massive Asteroid From Earth Collision
NASA is preparing to deflect the massive asteroid, Bennu, currently set on an Earthbound trajectory for the year 2135. This potential Earth impactor is about 1,600 feet long and may require a nuclear blast to disrupt its course.
The likelihood of Bennu hitting our planet is a 1-in-2700 chance, but when it comes to an asteroid that size, those odds are a bit too close for comfort. In the event of an impact, Bennu, would slam into the planet with 80,000 times the force of the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
Depending on where it strikes, Bennu would blow a crater over a mile into the Earth’s crust, causing mega-tsunamis, fires, and likely a nuclear winter. The chances of our species surviving would be slim.
NASA is working proactively to nudge Bennu on a different course, as it gets more difficult to do so, the longer we wait. In conjunction with the National Nuclear Security Administration, NASA is working on a project proposal called HAMMER, the Hypervelocity Asteroid Mitigation Mission, to prevent humanity from sharing the same demise as the dinosaurs.
HAMMER is ideal for knocking large asteroids off course, especially those with a short timeframe for impacting Earth. Sound like the premise of the 1998 Michael Bay blockbuster, Armageddon?
But HAMMER is still just a hypothetical mission, funding for it hasn’t been approved and the use of nuclear weapons is rightfully a sensitive proposition. Scientists must exercise caution when employing nuclear weapons to break up asteroids, as blasting the rock into a multitude of smaller, radioactive meteorites might pose a greater risk.
The alternative to a nuclear armed probe is an “impactor,” like the one NASA used in its 2005 Deep Impact mission that successfully collided with the Tempel 1 comet. An impactor would push the asteroid off course, but this solution is only feasible for smaller asteroids.
In Sept. 2016, NASA deployed the probe, OSIRIS-Rex, to land on the surface of Bennu to collect and return samples to Earth for further study. The probe is scheduled to reach Bennu in August of this year and return to Earth in 2023.
Though Bennu may not hit us for another century or more, planning to mitigate its impact now could save future generations from having to deal with a potential catastrophe at the last minute. Though astrophysicists warn that we face a greater threat from impact by unseen objects.
The interstellar asteroid, Oumuamua, had a similar width as Bennu and wasn’t picked up on our radar until it was already on its way out of the solar system. The Chelyabinsk meteor also snuck under the radar, exploding in Earth’s lower atmosphere in 2013. The meteor exploded before it hit the ground and still injured 1,500 people.
Stargates and Hidden Portals on Earth and in Space
In 2015, NASA admitted that the idea of Earth portals — areas on the planet that instantly teleport human beings from one place to the other — are a reality that they have been studying for quite some time.
One of NASA’s spacecraft, the THEMIS, and cluster probes from Europe have amassed enough observational data to confirm that a magnetic stargate portal exists in many locations.
Usually these are found where the faraway geomagnetic field bumps up against the passing solar wind. The result is a direct pathway between the Earth and the sun.
In March 2015, NASA launched its Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS) that, among other things, is tasked with studying these portals to gain a deeper understanding of them. Most of these are small with short lives, though others have been observed as gaping holes with sustained lifespans. Opening and closing numerous times during the day, magnetic forces mingle, allowing their crackling energy particles to flow between the Earth and the sun. These meeting points — called X-points by NASA — have been pinpointed by scientists using polar data.
The Bermuda Triangle
The Bermuda Triangle is probably the most famous stargate portal. Encompassing three vertices, the Bermuda Triangle — sometimes referred to as the Devil’s Triangle — is a large abyss that stretches between San Juan, Puerto Rico, Bermuda Island, and Miami, Florida. First noted in late 1950 or early 1951, the Bermuda Triangle was deemed to be a mysterious area in which huge military ships and planes were “lost” without any other plausible explanation forthcoming from the government or the military. In 1964, Vincent H. Gaddis argued that the Bermuda Triangle was the site of strange occurrences such as disappearing tanker ships and jets with the government being unwilling — or unable — to provide a reason or explanation.
The Philadelphia Experiment
The Philadelphia Experiment, also sometimes called Project Rainbow, grew out of the desire to cloak the U.S. Navy’s destroyer, USS Eldridge, so that enemy devices were not able to detect it. Built on concepts relative to stargate portals, the project relied on a technological application developed by well-known and respected scientific greats Nikola Tesla and Albert Einstein.
Testing started in 1943 and was successful to a large degree. In fact, some witnesses noted that they saw a green fog in the area where the massive ship once stood. Further experiments in late October resulted in the USS Eldridge vanishing from its shakedown cruise in the Bahamas. Simultaneously, sailors stationed 375 miles south at the Norfolk Naval Base in Norfolk, Virginia, reported the ship’s appearance for several minutes before it vanished.
Alfred Bielek, a former crew member on board the USS Eldridge, and Duncan Cameron, who would later work on the Montauk Project, jumped from the deck of the USS Eldridge when it was trapped in hyperspace and landed in the future.
Once they arrived at Camp Hero in 1983, they were tasked with returning to the USS Eldridge in order to destroy the equipment holding the ship in hyperspace. The pair did so successfully before leaping off the deck and materializing in the current year.
