The astronomers at Johns Hopkins University have identified a way to avoid the collision of an asteroid with the Earth. For this, the researchers checked what will happen if an asteroid with a diameter of 100 meters will be blown up using a nuclear device. The results of research published in the journal Acta Astronautica, show that in this case, the fall of the heavenly bodies will be able to prevent.
Scientists analyzed as different asteroid orbits and different distributions of fragments for which you can break the heavenly body affect the fate of parts. A hypothetical case was considered when the device with a power of one megaton was blown up a few meters from the surface of the asteroid, similar to Benno, but five times less by weight. As the initial conditions, the researchers chose five different orbits of the celestial body.
It turned out that if the asteroid blew two months before the collision, it will reduce the impact weight of the heavenly body in a thousand and more times, that is, 99.9 percent of the mass of the asteroid will not fall into the atmosphere of the Earth. For a larger object, the explosion will be slightly less effective, but when the celestial body is destroyed in six months, it will be possible to reduce the impact weight by 99 percent.
According to scientists, it is preferable to use kinetic shock elements to reject the asteroid 10 months before the collision. However, in emergency situations where a dangerous asteroid was discovered shortly before falling to the Earth, more efficient and rapid methods of preventing disasters are required.