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Uninhabitable planets can be moved into 'Goldilocks Zone'?

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Press Trust of India New York
The superhuman ability to move planets throughout the solar system at our will may sound far-fetched, but scientists say it's not impossible.

It may be possible to move planets like Mars into a 'Goldilocks Zone' that could create habitable conditions on the celestial bodies, scientists believe.

In a podcast last week US Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson was asked about such a possibility.

A listener asked whether using the same methods, scientists theorise would work to move meteorites, would it be possible to move uninhabitable planets to regions of our solar system where they could potentially sustain human life, 'New York daily News' reported.
 

"There's a planet we want to live on. It's too close or it's too far away, let's move it to the Goldilocks Zone where the temperature from the Sun is just right for liquid water opposed to frozen water or evaporated water," Tyson answered.

Tyson said such planet-moving is indeed 100 per cent theoretically possible.

"The day that we can begin shifting planetary bodies around like asteroids and large asteroids - start small, end big - I don't see any reason why we can't start shifting planets around," Tyson said.

Retired Senior Scientist of NASA's Orbital Debris Research Donald J Kessler said that he agreed that it is a "pretty simple concept" and entirely possible.

However, "huge amount" of energy is required to push a planet, he said.

He said there was a difference between moving an asteroid on track to slam into Earth and repositioning a planet.

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First Published: Jun 25 2013 | 6:10 PM IST

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