Is Trying to Destroy Asteroids with Nukes a Good Idea?
As we all learned from
In their study, the researchers looked at the feasibility of destroying an asteroid with a nuke in such an instance; where we lowly humans wouldn’t have time to say, launch large spaceships toward the rocky body in order to deflect it in a less dangerous way. Albeit a less entertaining way as well.
According to a software program the researchers developed, which they’ve dubbed “Spheral,” exploding an asteroid that’s six months out with a nuclear bomb would not only annihilate the threat, but shatter the asteroid into fragments which themselves would no longer endanger Earth. (Yes, we’re basically talking about the ending of
“Simply stated, for a 100-meter object that’s projected to hit Earth, if we employ a robust nuclear disruption technique by at least one month before impact, we can prevent 99% or more of the impacting mass from hitting the Earth,” Patrick King, lead author of the study, told
King and his colleagues conclude that nuking asteroids—or deploying “disruption” to use the technical term—is a feasible plan B. At least in this “late time” scenario anyway, where we’d just throw everything we had at the problem. Again, literally.
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