Bigblastsortinytugs

Level2Intermediate
1Prereading1:Keywords

Matchthesekeywordsfromthetextwiththedenitionsbelow.
ablastatuganasteroidacatastropheacollision
inevitableanorbittoreleaseanionatractor
1. ____________ A terrible disaster.
2. ____________ An explosion.
3. ____________ A mass of rock like a very small planet in space.
4. ____________ An accident when one thing crashes into another.
5. ____________ A small, powerful boat used for pulling larger boats.
6. ____________ Something that nobody can prevent or avoid.
7. ____________ The path that a small object follows round a larger object in space.
8. ____________ An atom with an electrical force.
9. ____________ Usually, a vehicle used on a farm to pull other machines; here, a space vehicle with the
power to pull another object towards it.
10. ____________ To allow something to escape.

1Prereading2:Prediction

Lookatthemainheadline,thesubheadingandthekeywords.
1. Do you think the Earth is in danger now?
2. Do you think the scientists have already found a solution?

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NEWS LESSONS / Big blasts or tiny tugs / Intermediate

Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2007

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Nowreadthetextquicklytondout.

Bigblastsortinytugs
Level2Intermediate

AlokJha,sciencecorrespondent
March7,2007
(Note that some words, written in italics and
marked like this*, are explained in the footnotes
at the end of the article.)
1 Ahugeasteroidiesinfromouterspaceto
destroy the Earth, an unstoppable force of
nature from which there is no escape. Perhaps
a disaster like this killed off the dinosaurs, and
most experts think it is only a matter of time
before the same thing happens to us.
2 But perhaps not all hope is lost. Hundreds of
scientists, from nuclear weapons engineers to
planetary experts, are coming to Washington this
week to try to develop a master plan to protect
the Earth from such an asteroid.
3 The Planetary Defence Conference, organised
by the US Aerospace Corporation, will discuss
lots of ideas on how to develop technology to
locate and redirect objects heading towards the
Earth. The conference will also consider the
difcultproblemofpublicrelationsisitbestto
warn people if the worst comes to the worst?
4 Many smaller objects around the Earths orbit
break up when they reach the atmosphere and
thisisnomoredangerousthanashortreworks
display. But there are also large asteroids or
comets,alsocallednearEarthobjects*(NEOs).
ANEOwiderthan1kmcollideswithEarthevery
fewhundredthousandyears.AnNEOlarger
than 6km, which could cause total extinction,
will collide with Earth every 100 million years.
Experts agree that we should expect a big one
soon.
5 A390metrewideasteroidnamedApophiswas
discovered in 2004. This has an outside chance*
of hitting the Earth in 2036. If it hit, Apophis

6 Dr Barbee, a US space expert, thinks that if

it collided with Earth, it would be a disaster.
Such events have occurred in the past and will
occuragaininthefuture.Butnow,fortherst
time in known history, humanity may have the
technology to stop it happening.
7 Dr Barbee thinks the answer is nuclear. If a
nuclear weapon hit the edge of the asteroid, it
couldcausetheNEOtochangedirection,and
miss Earth rather than collide. The advantage
of this idea is that it is possible with current
technologythoughnoonehasactuallytried
it yet.
8 Piet Hut, another expert, has a less dangerous
ideaarobotictugboatthatcouldattachitself
to an asteroid and push it out of the Earths
path. Modern technology would warn scientists
10 years in advance, to send the tugboat into
position in good time.
9 The tugboat would be driven by an ion engine.
These engines dont burn chemicals for fuel; they
drive a spacecraft forwards by forcing electrically
charged particles backwards. The pressure is
veryslightbuttheengineisveryefcientand
lasts far longer than normal rocket engines. Prof
Hutcalculatesthatsuchanenginecoulddeect
NEOsupto800metresacross.
10 Ion engines would also be essential for another
idea, the gravity tractor. But instead of landing
on an asteroid, the gravity tractor would hover
near it, using the slight gravitational attraction*
betweentheprobeandtheNEOtochange
its path.

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NEWS LESSONS / Big blasts or tiny tugs / Intermediate

Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2007

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Great danger of a crash with Earth, but scientists

aremeetingtondasolution.

would release more than 100,000 times the

energy released in the Hiroshima nuclear bomb.
This blast would directly affect thousands of
square kilometres, but the dust released into
the atmosphere would affect the whole planet.
There could be dark skies* for a year or more,
destroying crops worldwide.

Bigblastsortinytugs:howtostopan
asteroidcatastrophe

Bigblastsortinytugs
Level2Intermediate
11 Psychologists will attend the Washington meeting
as well as technologists. They will consider how
the public would react psychologically to news
of a possible collision. Al Harrison, a leading US
socialpsychologist,saysanNEOcollisionwould
present unique problems for the authorities, as
they could know about a near extinction level
danger so long in advance.
12 The psychologists will discuss whether this
kind of news should be kept secret, to prevent
public panic. In December 2004, for example,
scientists calculated that if Apophis did hit, it
would land somewhere on a line between central
Europe, the Middle East, the Ganges River valley
(the most populated district on Earth), and the
Philippines. At the time, the information was kept
secret,andmanyNEOscientistsagreeditwas
the right thing to do.
13 But Clark Chapman, a US planetary scientist,
says many social science experts are against
secrecy. Their studies do not suggest that the
public would immediately panic about a possible
danger. But the news must be given carefully,
or people might misunderstand, become
unnecessarilyfrightened,stopbelievingofcial
statements and ignore important warnings.

next time it passes, in 2036. However, current

information suggests that Apophis is very unlikely
to pass through the keyhole, a patch of space
just 600 metres wide. The possibility is only 1 in
5,500.
Dark skies
Scientists have estimated the effects of a
massive asteroid collision by examining
simulations of what would happen during a big
nuclear war.
Slight gravitational attraction
Everything in the universe that has mass attracts
anything else with mass via the force of gravity. If
a gravity tractor is placed near an asteroid, the
asteroidwillmovefractionallytowardsit.Overa
distance of millions of kilometers, even a slight
deectioncouldmovetheasteroidoutofthe
Earths way.
Guardian News & Media 2007
First published in The Guardian, 07/03/07

Footnotes
Near-Earth objects
Comets and asteroids pulled into orbits near the
Earthbygravityfromplanets.MostNEOsare
made of ice and dust, or are bits of rock from the
asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars.

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NEWS LESSONS / Big blasts or tiny tugs / Intermediate

Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2007

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Outside chance
Apophis was discovered in June 2004. In
December that year, astronomers started to
worry. When they calculated its future orbit, they
thought it was very likely to hit the Earth in 2029.
When the asteroid passes the Earth again on
April132029,theEarthwillprobablydeectit,
and change its orbit. But if that change makes
Apophis pass through a particular point in space,
called the keyhole, it will collide with the Earth

Bigblastsortinytugs
Level2Intermediate
3 Generalunderstanding
Answerthefollowingquestionsaccordingtothetext.
1. Where is the conference going to be?
2. What is another name for bigger asteroids?
3. What is the newest asteroid called?
4. HowbigcanNEOsbe?
5. How often could one of the biggest ones hit the earth?
6. When do scientists think Apophis could hit the earth?
7. They think this could be: a) quite dangerous; b) not very dangerous; c) very dangerous
8. Which of these are possible ways of stopping the asteroid hitting the earth?
a) a nuclear weapon; b) a robotic tugboat; c) an ion engine; d) electrically charged particles; e) a gravity tractor
9. All these methods aim to: a) destroy the asteroid; b) make it change direction; c) send it back
10. Which part of the world has more people living there than anywhere else?

4 Vocabularydevelopment1:Worldbuilding

Wordclass

Para

noun

2. impossible to stop

adjective

3. connected with planets

adjective

noun

5. connected with danger

adjective

6. connected with robots

adjective

7. people who studypsychology

noun

11

8. people who study technology

noun

11

9. people who study science

noun

12

10. keeping something secret

noun

13

1. when two things collide

4. when things become extinct

Word

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NEWS LESSONS / Big blasts or tiny tugs / Intermediate

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Meaning

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Seeifyoucanllthechartbelowfrommemory.Thencheckthewordsinthetexttheparagraphnumbers
aregiven.

Bigblastsortinytugs
Level2Intermediate
5 Vocabularydevelopment2:Pronunciation
Nowputthosewordsintothecorrectcolumnaccordingtotheirstress.

planetary

collision
unstoppable

6 Languagedevelopment:Conditionals
Markthesesentencesaboutfutureevents:D(ifyouthinkthewriterthinkstheyareDenite) or JP(ifyou
thinkhethinkstheyareonlyJust Possible).
1. The conference will also consider (3)
2. ...the dustwould affect the whole planet (5)
3. ...it would be a disaster. (6)
4. ItcouldcausetheNEOtochangedirection.(7)

Denite

JustPossible

will consider

would affect

5. Modern technology would warn scientists... (8)

6. ...the gravity tractor would hover near it. (10)
7. Psychologists will attend the Washington meeting. (11)
8. The psychologists will discuss... (12)
9. It would land somewhere... (12)
10. ...people might misunderstand. (13)
Nowputtheverbsintooneofthecolumns,asintheexample.Whatdoyounoticeabouttheverbsineach
column?

7 Discussion

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NEWS LESSONS / Big blasts or tiny tugs / Intermediate

Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2007

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1. From reading this article, how worried do you think we should be?
2. Which solution do you think is the most practical?
3. Do you think the government should tell people about possible dangers like this, or do you think they should
keep them secret? Why / why not?