Lasers to shift killer asteroids

A team of scientists and engineers at

(UAH) is conducting research that could one day save humanity from asteroids threatening Earth.

UAH's Laser Science and Engineering Group, headed by Dr. Richard Fork, is conducting research into characterising and deflecting asteroids that may endanger Earth.

Fork, who has more than 40 years of experience working with lasers, said someday it could be possible to locate a laser in space or on the moon to look at the properties of asteroids and perhaps alter their trajectories away from Earth. Members of his group are building a laser system ‘that is the grandfather of the laser that will push the asteroids,’ Fork said.

According to calculations made by the group, an asteroid could be characterised up to 1 AU away (1.5 x 10¹¹ m). Arecibo and other radar observatories can only detect objects up to 0.1 AU away, so in theory a laser would represent a vast improvement over radar.