That\u2019s one way to stop the a-rock-alypse.<\/p>\n
Chinese scientists have devised an unorthodox solution to stop a potential Doomsday asteroid from destroying Earth \u2014 by nuking the space-rock with a force equivalent to multiple Hiroshima bombs.<\/p>\n
Seemingly taking a leaf from \u201cArmageddon,\u201d the researchers proposed first drilling deep inside the intergalactic gravelstone and then implanting the nuclear bomb inside this blast crater for detonation.<\/p>\n
Chinese scientists have proposed an unorthodox anti-asteroid measure that involves penetrating an Earth-bound rock and then detonating a nuke inside it. lukszczepanski \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n
A television at NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, captures the final images from the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) just before it smashes into the asteroid Dimorphos on Sept. 26, 2022. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cThis study can provide references for the engineering design of defense against large near-Earth asteroids,\u201d wrote the researchers, who hailed from the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology in Beijing, The Independent reported.<\/a><\/p>\n The somewhat unconventional solution comes amid a rash of near-misses involving asteroids, including a bus-sized space rock that came within 56,000 miles of Earth in May, Vice reported.<\/a><\/p>\n NASA scientists have warned that there are as many as 15,000 several hundred-foot -wide asteroids that are small enough to avoid detection but large enough to destroy a city.<\/a><\/p>\n With warning times ranging from days to weeks, there\u2019s not enough time for planetary defense systems to deploy proposed countermeasures such as DART \u2014 in which NASA used a spacecraft to knock the asteroid Dimorphos off course in 2022<\/a>.<\/p>\n A mushroom cloud reaches high into the sky during atomic testing in Nevada, circa 1940. (Hulton Archive) Getty Images<\/p>\n Per the latest study published in the journal Space: Science & Technology, the only viable way to nip a Doomsday asteroid in the bud would be via impregnating it with a nuclear device.<\/p>\n To test this atomic solution, the researchers conducted a computer simulation involving hypothetical asteroids approaching Earth at a speed of 6 miles per second. <\/p>\n They then tested how effective different defense measures would be against asteroids of varying sizes, speeds and trajectories.<\/p>\n According to the simulations, a 164-foot asteroid could be obliterated with a 300-kiloton nuclear explosion \u2014 the same as around 20 Hiroshima bombs \u2014 while a 3-megaton blast could destroy a nearly 1,000-meter one, the South China Morning Post reported.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThis study can provide references for the engineering design of defense against large near-Earth asteroids,\u201d wrote the researchers. dottedyeti \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n The depth of detonation also played a factor with the researchers finding that installing the nuclear payload around 100 meters deep tripled the change in the rock\u2019s velocity compared to a shallower version.<\/p>\n However, the mission\u2019s success would require the researchers to detect the threat early enough to launch and execute this mission before impact, and also design a vehicle capable of carrying a drilling device and nuclear device into deep space.<\/p>\n Nonetheless, the researchers felt that the study \u201cholds profound strategic significance for enhancing humanity\u2019s capability to respond to asteroid impact threats.\u201d<\/p>\n This wouldn\u2019t be the first time that scientists have proposed nuking an asteroid to Kingdom Come.<\/p>\n