Booth Id:
PHYS014
Category:
Physics and Astronomy
Year:
2017
Finalist Names:
Goodrich, Zachariah (School: Clear Lake High School)
Abstract:
The purpose of this project is to find the entire orbit of an asteroid and develop an effective way to move the asteroid so that it will not impact the earth. The asteroid will be moved with the use of microwaves and the second law of thermodynamics. Assuming that the asteroid is mostly made out of water, one side could be heated with intense earth based microwaves thus, making the asteroid behave like a radiometer as the temperatures try to equalize.
Knowing the orbit of the asteroid permits an accurate method to measure changes in its orbit. The method used for finding the orbit allows the user to very quickly determine these changes.
If the hypotheses is disproven and the asteroid cannot be moved by heating one side, then the equipment can be repurposed to further study the asteroid. These possibilities range from studying the surface of the asteroid, to determine new ways of detecting asteroids that do not reflect light with a form of extremely long range radar.