10 years ago
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Scientists want to annihilate asteroids using nuclear weapons
There's a devastating asteroid hurtling towards Earth, and humanity only has a few years to destroy it before it destroys us. Scientists around the world are looking for solutions to just that scenario, and some of them are channeling Bruce Willis to do it.
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Hollywood scared us shitless into thinking earth killing asteroids are a common phenomenon. The truth however is that they are extremely rare, and once we do have a scenario when an asteroid might be endangering our survival, we are going to have a lot better technology than nukes.
Diverting the course of any asteroid is doable. Obviously the distance away from impact determines the strength of explosion needed. A nuclear device is the most practical, you get more bang for the buck, and in the case of the killer asteroid, more is better. There is no better technology now or the foreseeable future.