If your concept of eradicating a potential “city killer” asteroid begins and ends with the plot of Armageddon, well, you’re actually not that far off from one proposed method of asteroid obliteration—just without actually putting anyone on the asteroid. Nuking an asteroid to smithereens is such a viable, if completely theoretical, tactic that scientists publishing their findings in The Planetary Science Journal just tested it out. In a computer simulation. No actual asteroids or Bruce Willises were harmed in the making of this research paper.
The team, led by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory astrophysicist Isaiah Santistevan, simulated detonating a one-megaton nuclear weapon near (not on or in) a 525-foot-wide asteroid modeled after Bennu, an asteroid which passes by Earth about every six years.
What Happened When Scientists Simulated Nuking an Asteroid
In their simulations, the researchers found that the detonation’s burst of X-rays could vaporize the asteroid’s surface. All the material that will be blown off of its surface would act like tiny rocket engines, changing the asteroid’s trajectory and creating a shockwave that could fracture the rock from the inside.
The team ran three simulations using different distances and asteroid fracture properties. In a 10-meter scenario, 98.2 percent of the asteroid material was damaged, and about 97 percent was moving faster than the asteroid’s escape velocity. Moving the bomb further away produced more widespread damage because the X-rays spread out over more of its surface.
The other pretty good tactic, if a bit nuts. But there is a catch: the simulations covered only the immediate aftermath of an asteroid’s obliteration. That means they don’t yet know whether the asteroid would safely break apart, or maybe reform itself, or maybe be reduced down from one big killer asteroid to thousands of smaller asteroids. So, there are some kinks to work out. But the study does suggest that if humanity ever truly discovers a giant killer rock barreling toward us, the dumb guy tactic of just throwing a nuke at it might not be the dumbest idea.
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