Researchers have put to the scientific test what we have all seen at least once in a film: the destruction of an asteroid by a nuclear bomb to save the Earth.
Even if you are not particularly fond of the genre, you must have seen at least one film or read at least one book which tells the story of saving the Earth threatened by an asteroid hurtling towards it. Some will rememberArmageddon in 1998, directed by Michael Bay with Bruce Willis in the lead role. But did you know that this type of disaster is considered very seriously, to the point that there is a whole field of research and active surveillance called Planetary Defense ?
Reality also goes beyond fiction since last year, the NASA announced that it had deflected an asteroid approaching the planet using an impactor vessel. Except that this is not necessarily the most effective method. Like in the movies, we say to ourselves that one day we might have to send a nuclear missile on a large, too threatening rock from space. The question is simple: would it really work? For the knowledge, scientists conducted complex simulations.
Researchers reveal whether or not blowing up an asteroid with a nuclear bomb would work
We know thata nuclear explosion releases a lot of energymainly in the form of X-rays. The aim is to know what the effects of this radiation are on an asteroid. Mary Burkey, a physicist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), offers reassuring conclusions: “If we have enough advance warning, we could potentially launch a nuclear device, sending it millions of miles toward an asteroid heading towards the Earth”.
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She goes on to explain that “we would then detonate the device and either deflect the asteroid, keeping it intact but moving it away from Earth in a controlled manner, or dislocate it, breaking it into small, fast-moving fragments that would also miss the planet.” The simulation model created by the LLNL teams shows the impact of a nuclear missile on 4 different types of asteroids, taking into account several conditions. Enough to cover as many possible scenarios as possible.
Source: The Planetary Science Journal