China is exploring the use of nuclear bombs to divert asteroids
According to the scientists quoted by the newspaper, a three-megaton explosion – equivalent to around 200 Hiroshima bombs – could completely destroy an asteroid around one hundred metres in diameter.
A group of Chinese scientists is developing a method to use nuclear weapons to destroy large asteroids on a collision course with Earth. This is according to the South China Morning Post.
The project is being carried out by a group of researchers at the China Rocket Research Institute in Beijing.
The plan involves a first metal probe crashing into the asteroid and drilling a deep hole, into which a second spacecraft would then deposit a nuclear bomb to be detonated inside the asteroid.
According to the scientists quoted by the newspaper, a three-megaton explosion, equivalent to around 200 Hiroshima bombs, could completely destroy an asteroid around one hundred metres in diameter.
The researchers have also calculated that placing the device thirty metres below the surface could more than triple the change in the asteroid’s speed compared with a shallow detonation, making the method “significantly more effective at altering the object’s trajectory”.
