The plan to stop an asteroid hitting Earth

[August]

The plan to stop an asteroid hitting Earth

 

[Castle-Yankee54]

I think in the next 120 years they'll be able to come up with a better plan than a large thermonuclear weapon.

Besides that is a bit of an overkill.

 

[August]

Blowing an asteroid into smaller chunks is not to good an idea . If its a very large asteroid how much power would they need to change its trajectory ?

 

[Castle-Yankee54]

Blowing an asteroid into smaller chunks is not to good an idea . If its a very large asteroid how much power would they need to change its trajectory ?

Not sure of how much to use on a big one similar to the 6 mile one in the movie "Deep Impact" where they used 40 megatons to blow it into dust. The Zsar Bomb destroyed everything within a 20 mile radius and it was 50 megatons. So yes 1150 megatons on a 500 meters is an overkill....the left over dust would be harmless.

 

[Castle-Yankee54]

Blowing an asteroid into smaller chunks is not to good an idea . If its a very large asteroid how much power would they need to change its trajectory ?

The 1150 megatons would likely be enough for a 6 mile asteroid.