mirror bee
n.— «The best method, called “mirror bees,” entails sending a group of small satellites equipped with mirrors 30 to 100 feet wide into space to “swarm” around an asteroid and trail it, Vasile explains. The mirrors would be tilted to reflect sunlight onto the asteroid, vaporizing one spot and releasing a stream of gases that would slowly move it off course.» —“The Best Way to Deflect an Asteroid” by Lia Miller New York Times Dec. 9, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
The edge of the Grand Canyon. A remote mountaintop. A medieval cathedral. Some places are so mystical you feel like you’re close to another dimension of space and time. There’s a term for such locales: thin places. And: did you ever go...
Astronomers have spotted nearly 150 objects far out in space that are too small to be called stars, but they can’t be called planets, because they don’t orbit a star. They’re about the size of Jupiter, but given what we know about...