May 22, 2017 8:40 pm

Tuesday, Bill Nye and Chuck Nice Defend the Planet

Here’s a hypothetical scenario for you. A life-ending asteroid is going to hit Earth in thirty years. How did we deal with it? How did we find out about it? Can we destroy it? Can we do anything?

This week on StarTalk All-Stars, Bill Nye and comic co-host Chuck Nice answer these questions and more fan-submitted Cosmic Queries on planetary defense. You’ll learn if we have any international plan in place if an asteroid event is imminent. Discover how we detect asteroids in space. Explore the probabilities that human involvement might actually make matters worse. You’ll also find out how late we can detect an Earth-bound asteroid before it’s too late.

The last point is an interesting one to think about. Even if we were able to detect an asteroid right at the very last minute in the window to do it, everything after would need to unfold in just the right way. There could be no mistakes and even if everything were to go smoothly, there would still be inherent uncertainty through the entire process. Not to mention that human existence would be on the line, which might also add some pressure.

You’ll hear about the level of international cooperation needed to successfully deal with an asteroid event and why looking back on cooperation in the past provides hope for the future. Bill and Chuck also discuss using ground based lasers to hit asteroids millions of miles away to change their trajectory.

It was also interesting to learn whether asteroids hitting the moon would have any effect on the Earth. What if a collision were to send the moon away from us? What if it were to push the moon towards us?

What if an asteroid destroys the moon? What if an asteroid impacts the moon and creates two moons? Okay, the last two question are me just getting carried away. But, as Chuck says, the universe is a hostile place.

Want to help defend the Earth? Then please join us tomorrow night for Planetary Defense, with Bill Nye at 7pm EDT right here on our website, as well as on our All-Stars channels on Apple Podcasts, Google Play Music, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and TuneIn. And if you’re an All-Access subscriber, you can watch or listen to this episode ad-free at 7pm, too.

That’s it for now. Keep Looking Up!
–Ian Mullen