Moon dust could be fired into space to shade the Earth from the Sun’s rays and stop global warming, scientists have concluded.
The radical solution might sound extreme, but astrophysicists have calculated that it could reduce solar radiation by one to two per cent, enough to stop
climate change.
Although launching vast quantities of dust from Earth would be too expensive,
mining moon dust for the task could be achievable, they argue.
The proposal involves shooting lunar dust from
a platform on the surface of the Moon towards the Sun. The team found that when fired at the correct trajectory, the dust would scatter effectively into space and work as a sun shield.
“It is amazing to contemplate how moon dust - which took over four billion years to generate - might help slow the rise in the Earth’s temperature, a problem that took us less than 300 years to produce,” said Scott Kenyon from the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
“It is astounding that the Sun, Earth, and Moon are in just the right configuration to enable this kind of climate mitigation strategy.”
‘Possible game changer for critical problem’
The team stumbled across the idea while studying planet formation around distant stars.
Planet formation is a messy process that kicks up astronomical dust, forming rings around host stars, and partly blocking out the radiation.
......they we can maybe have a conversation.
