Scientists explore firing nuke ‘millions of miles’ into space to stop catastrophic asteroid

Scientists are exploring whether they might save Earth with a plot from a sci-fi disaster movie.

A study released this month investigated whether a nuke could be shot “millions of miles” into space to prevent a catastrophic asteroid from wrecking the planet.

Researchers with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) developed a modeling tool that could assess that possibility on the heels of a 2022 mission from NASA that successfully misdirected a giant space rock.

The new tool, detailed in the Planetary Science Journal, helps scientists understand if another option could be at their disposal after NASA deployed a kinetic impactor, in this case a spacecraft, to knock the 2022 asteroid off course during the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission.

“If we have enough warning time, we could potentially launch a nuclear device, sending it millions of miles away to an asteroid that is headed toward Earth,” LLNL physicist Mary Burkey, who was head of the research team in a statement.

Nuclear devices have a higher percentage of energy density per unit than the kinetic impactor used by the space agency, which would make it a more effective method against asteroids, Burkey noted.

“We would then detonate the device and either deflect the asteroid, keeping it intact but providing a controlled push away from Earth, or we could disrupt the asteroid, breaking it up into small, fast-moving fragments that would also miss the planet,” Burkey noted.

Sophisticated multiphysics simulations operated by the LLNL cover a wide array of factors that would help figure out if a nuclear deflection mission would be a success, she said.

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