China ready to defend Earth from asteroids

A Long March 3B rocket carrying two satellites blasts off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province, Dec 26, 2023. (Photo/Xinhua)

Asteroid 2024 RW1 has, by entering the Earth's atmosphere and burning out 25 kilometers above the Philippines on Sept 5, the day China announced its asteroid defense plan, proved the necessity and practicality of the plan.

It's true that the risks of an asteroid causing damage are considerably low, as most of them burn out moments after entering the atmosphere. However, should an asteroid make landfall the disaster might be more than mankind can bear.

After all, the impact of an asteroid on the Gulf of Mexico about 65 million years ago is believed to have wiped out the dinosaurs. More recently, in 1908, an asteroid that landed in Tunguska in Siberia triggered a forest fire that damaged about 80 million trees within a 2,000 square-km radius.

Before the advent of modern technology, there was no way to know which asteroids were dangerous or how to shield ourselves from them even if we knew. However, with the help of new advanced telescopes and advances in telecommunications, it's now possible to keep an alert eye on space to safeguard ourselves from possible dangers.

Even the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration is prepared for challenges from out there. In September 2022, it launched the Double Asteroid Redirection Test mission, under which a spacecraft was made to collide with asteroid moonlet Dimorphos in order to deflect its course. The European Space Agency's Hera mission, starting in October, will study the binary asteroid system Didymos, and the DART's impact on Dimorphos.

To defend the Earth from nearby asteroids, China will reportedly adopt an “escort plus impact plus escort” mode, which is interpreted by some as a combination of what NASA and ESA have been doing, namely to both impact and observe.

China joined the International Asteroid Warning Network in 2018 and was monitoring the asteroid that entered the skies over the Philippines. China, with its more advanced technologies, is willing to join hands with its friends around the world to defend the Earth from asteroids.