New research suggests that dust shot up from the Moon's surface could help cool the Earth. Astronomers are exploring solutions to mitigate Earth's climate change, one of humanity's greatest challenges, using a few tiny dust particles. They propose extracting, collecting and blasting dust from the lunar surface and placing it between the Earth and the Sun, where newly formed clouds would obscure our planet for several days before solar wind and radiation pressure dissipate them.
The researchers say that over the course of a year, such dust shields can reduce the amount of sunlight reaching Earth by 1.8%, which is within the range needed to slow Brazil phone number list the increase in our planet's temperature. Also Read: Another Potential Climate Victim: Adorable Fluffy Algae Balls Creating such a shadow would require 22 billion pounds (10 billion kilograms) of dust a year, or "about 100 times more mass than humans have sent into space to date," the authors wrote in their study.
Astronomers suggest that dust particles could be used to block sunlight before it reaches Earth. The proposed solution is not new. In 2012, astronomers ambitiously considered "pushing" the largest near-Earth asteroid, the 22-mile-wide (35 kilometers) 1036 Ganymed , between the Sun and Earth to both create a dust cloud and gravitationally hold it in place. Astronomers have also studied costly and resource-intensive geoengineering projects such as giant screens and reflective mirrors to cool the Earth.