Related papers: Precautionary Planetary Defence
While humans become more reliant on Earth's space environment, the potential for significant harm from severe space weather continues to grow. As structures from the sun reach Earth's magnetosphere and space environment, they deposit energy…
In this article, equilibrium points and families of periodic orbits in the vicinity of the collinear equilibrium points of a binary asteroid system are investigated with respect to the angular velocity of the secondary body, the mass ratio…
The increasing deployment of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other autonomous algorithmic systems presents the world with new systemic risks. While focus often lies on the function of individual algorithms, a critical and underestimated…
Collisions are one of the key processes shaping planetary systems. Asteroid families are outcomes of such collisions still identifiable across our solar system. The families provide a unique view of catastrophic disruption phenomena and…
Observational searches for asteroids orbiting near Earth's triangular Lagrange points face unique obstacles. A population of such asteroids would occupy a large projected area on the sky (possibly hundreds of square degrees) and is not…
Experiments on the ultimatum game have revealed that humans are remarkably fond of fair play. When asked to share an amount of money, unfair offers are rare and their acceptance rate small. While empathy and spatiality may lead to the…
The problem of origin and age of asteroid families is studied very intensively. First of all youngest families are interesting due to possibility of the reconstruction their collisional history. But in oldest families present objects with…
Over 34,000 objects bigger than 10 cm in length are known to orbit Earth. Among them, only a small percentage are active satellites, while the rest of the population is made of dead satellites, rocket bodies, and debris that pose a…
About half of all known stellar systems with Sun-like stars consist of two or more stars, significantly affecting the orbital stability of any planet in these systems. Here we study the onset of instability for an Earth-type planet that is…
A method for classifying orbits near asteroids under a polyhedral gravitational field is presented, and may serve as a valuable reference for spacecraft orbit design for asteroid exploration. The orbital dynamics near asteroids are very…
Humanity appears to be on course to soon develop AI systems that substantially outperform human experts in all cognitive domains and activities. We believe the default trajectory has a high likelihood of catastrophe, including human…
Some asteroids eject dust, producing transient, comet-like comae and tails; these are the active asteroids. The causes of activity in this newly-identified population are many and varied. They include impact ejection and disruption,…
Despite years of research, understanding of the space radiation environment and the risk it poses to long-duration astronauts remains limited. There is a disparity between research results and observed empirical effects seen in human…
Earth is bombarded by meteors, occasionally by one large enough to cause a significant explosion and possible loss of life. Although the odds of a deadly asteroid strike in the next century are low, the most likely impact is by a relatively…
In these notes we review emergent phenomena in complex systems, emphasizing ways to identify potential underlying universal mechanisms that generates complexity. The discussion is centered around the emergence of collective behavior in…
A proposal is made to test Newton's inverse-square law using the perihelion shift of test masses (planets) in free fall within a spacecraft located at the Earth-Sun L2 point. Such an Artificial Planetary System In Space (APSIS) will operate…
Probing the existence of hypothetical particles beyond the Standard model often deals with extreme parameters: large energies, tiny cross-sections, large time scales, etc. Sometimes laboratory experiments can test required regions of…
Civilization cannot sustain an exponential growth for long time even when neglecting numerous laws of physics! In this paper, we examine what are fundamental obstacles to long term survival of a civilization and its possibility to colonize…
The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies presents profound challenges to societal safety. As AI systems become more capable, accessible, and integrated into critical services, the dual nature of their potential is…
Advances in machine learning have led to broad deployment of systems with impressive performance on important problems. Nonetheless, these systems can be induced to make errors on data that are surprisingly similar to examples the learned…