A New Way to Stop Asteroids Using Magnets!

A large asteroid big enough to destroy an entire city is scheduled to pass by earth on the 18 May, just barely far away enough so as not to crash into earth and even said by Mark Norris “In astronomical terms, it’s as close as you can get without hitting,” but what of it were just a bit closer? Then what should or could we have done?

Asteroids are large clumps of matter, often magnetic, that are attracted to each other by gravity and thus stick together, and can form a solid object over time. They are a large threat to humanity, as one large enough, albeit rare, could wipe out humans from the face of earth entirely, or at the very least destroy a large city. Asteroids that are small enough burn up in the earth's atmosphere, and don't really affect anyone, and those large enough to wipe out humanity are easy to spot and luckily none are predicted to collide with earth in the near future, however, there are smaller asteroids in the small range of 50 to 100 meters wide could potentially destroy an entire city, such as London or Berlin, while also being too small to properly detect until it is too late. Under one percent of all of these such asteroids have been detected, making them a large threat to us, which is why people are constantly trying to find a way to stop such an asteroid, assuming we even detect it.

There are many ideas and methods like crashing into an asteroid that would not have really worked for a multitude of reasons. The kinetic impactor approach attempts to get close enough to an asteroid to smash into it at the right angle knocking it off course. This is the most ideal and studied method, with NASA testing it in 2022, but there are a couple issues.

• The first is that an asteroid this size would not be easily redirected, not even by crashing our largest rocket into it, as it would be moving very fast.
• The second is that due to the asteroid's speed, it would be difficult to approach it with a spacecraft without overshooting it, or crashing at a wrong angle.
• FInally, if it is simply just a large mass of rubble, it would break apart and regroup again.

Another approach is that perhaps instead of crashing, we would be able to detonate a rocket loaded with nuclear weapons, and that the explosion would push the asteroid backwards, or perhaps even explode it entirely, but this too has obstacles.

• Again, such an explosion would be unlikely to affect the asteroid zooming towards earth, and it would be difficult to reach.
• Another big problem is that even if we were to explode it completely, we would still have to deal with a shower of mini-asteroids hurtling towards earth, which would still be very dangerous.
• Additionally, no actual testing has been done on this theory, due to treaties restricting nuclear weapons in orbit, or in space.

And even gravitationally altering its trajectory could not work as we have not produced anything of enough mass yet to change its course.

This is why a new theory has been introduced suggesting that we could theoretically use giant magnets to change the trajectory of future near earth asteroids. It is called the Non-contact Orbital Velocity Adjustment, or NOVA for short, thought up by Gunther Kletetschka working at the university of Alaska Fairbanks. He first presented on March 17, 2026.

The way this would work is by running a current through a coil of superconducting wire, which would be provided via a nuclear fission reactor onboard the rocket. Since most asteroids are magnetic, this would in theory work, avoiding the pitfalls of other ideas. It doesn't break apart any pile of rubble, we can certainly make magnets strong enough, and we could in theory test this in space, though of course it would still be a bit difficult to actually reach the asteroid.

When run through a simulation, this theory certainly does work, though there are some issues with it as well, like for example the fact that it would take a long time to pull the asteroid off course, so while it seems to have had a good start, scientists still need to refine it and turn it into a fully functioning asteroid defense system.

"Nobody ever figures out what life is all about, and it doesn't matter. Explore the world. Nearly everything is really interesting if you go into it deeply enough." - Richard Feynman, 1918 - 198

No AI used in the making of this article.

Cover image source:

https://www.gbnews.com/media-library/asteroid.jpg?id=55176438&width=800&quality=85