Bombing Earth-bound Asteroids a Viable Option, Experts Say
Blowing up oncoming space rocks might not, as feared, make a bad situation worse or require impossibly big bombs, new studies suggest.
Now, however, some researchers are finding evidence that an explosion might not, as feared, make a bad situation worse by sending a huge cloud of harmful debris raining down on the planet.
And other scientists are suggesting that, despite previous assumptions, we wouldn't need an impossibly powerful bomb to destroy a threatening asteroid.
Considering the damage a large asteroid strike could do to humanity, bombing any so-called near-Earth objects, or NEOs, headed our way might be a viable last resort "if we have the international political will," said Robert Weaver of Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
In such a case, "my calculations show that we have the means."
