Nuking Dangerous Asteroids: Does It Work? Here's What Experiments Show

A recent study shows that nuking might work to divert near-Earth asteroids from impacting the planet if an asteroid is rushing towards Earth on a Collison path at hundreds of thousands of kilometers per hour,

In terms of size, an asteroid doesn't have to be particularly large to inflict significant damage. In this investigation, the simulated one had a diameter of 300 meters or 1,000 feet. This equates to six Olympic-sized swimming pools. Even if it isn't as large as a rogue planet, the initial impact alone would destroy many large city blocks.

Scientists have identified 9,336 near-Earth object/asteroids (NEO/NEA) with diameters bigger than 140 meters as of October 2020, thus an asteroid of this magnitude is far from hypothetical. Scientists have categorized 2,122 of them as potentially dangerous items (PHOs). As a result, the danger isn't astronomically low-rather; it's a lot more down to Earth.

Slash Gear said that experts are still working on long-distance detection of potentially deadly asteroids that might threaten Earth. Unfortunately, a stray pebble may always get through the cracks in the net. The US Department of Energy's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory investigated what could be involved in a late-stage intervention using either a kinetic impactor or a nuclear explosion.

Nuking An Asteroid to Prevent Near-Earth Object From Colliding With Earth Could Work: Here's How

Researchers from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory showed that a nuking - or a "standoff nuclear explosion or a kinetic impactor" - might effectively divert an asteroid on a crash course with the Earth.

The nuclear weapon would shove the asteroid away from its destructive path with a modest speed adjustment without shattering it into hundreds of thousands of tiny fragments.

However, the researchers have devised a backup plan if they find an asteroid too late for them to divert. The second plan uses a nuclear weapon with enough energy to split up the asteroid into small, well-distributed bits.

In a statement, study co-author Michael Owen said their only remaining choice would be to smash the asteroid up so thoroughly that the resultant pieces would mostly miss the Earth.

They looked at the various velocity distributions of the fragments that were split off from an asteroid about the form of Bennu and had a diameter of around 100 meters. They estimated the consequences from a one-megaton-yield nuclear bomb placed a few meters off the asteroid's surface using hydrodynamic models and starting circumstances.

Study lead author Patrick King, a Graduate Scholar Program fellow at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, pointed out one challenge in determining disruption. In a Science Alert report, King said that modeling all fragment orbits is more complicated than modeling a simple deflection.

However, experts want to evaluate disruption as a potential approach; King said they need to address these problems. According to the experts, because many near-Earth asteroids have yet to be found, they must be prepared for any eventuality.

Researchers published their study, "Late-Time Small Body Disruptions for Planetary Defense," in Acta Astronautica.

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