Various studies continue to be carried out to anticipate the threat of asteroids. In the latest research, it is analyzed how the possibility of nuclear missiles being used to destroy objects in space is analyzed.
The study was conducted by academics at Johns Hopkins University. It says that firing a one-megaton nuclear missile at a small asteroid about to hit Earth has a 99% chance of stopping it.
"If we use this nuclear technique at least a month before the collision, we can prevent up to 99% of its mass from hitting the Earth," said study leader Patrick King.
This method is similar to the scenario in the film Armageddon, starring Bruce Willis. But the difference is, there is no need to land astronauts on an asteroid but only fire nuclear missiles from Earth that are directed at the asteroid.
The idea of destroying asteroids with nukes is actually not new. The previous concern was that the fragments from the asteroid were still large enough to still be traveling towards Earth, so the risk was still high.
However, in the simulations carried out in this new study, a bomb that was 50 times more powerful than the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima, it was concluded that the asteroid shrapnel would be harmless.
Now, the bigger the asteroid that threatens, then the nuclear missile fire must have a longer period so that the fragments don't reach Earth, which is about 6 months earlier. If the asteroid is small, the period is between one and two months before the expected collision.
"We found that this method can be a very effective planetary defense strategy against asteroids despite late intervention and should be considered as an effective back-up strategy if the primary method fails," he added.
