eli5 if an 5 km asteroid falls in ocean vs, same mass, smaller size like a footballs falls, in is it less issue?

Question

Was watching the age of ultron, so they blow up ‘asteroid’, and little peices fall down all is good,

So if there is a big asteroid falling to earth and we blow it up to small little peices, no big tsunami and mushroom cloud to worry about?

I guess it makes sense, but that feels like an easy solution for a complex problem

In: Planetary Science

Answer 1

If a large object was blasted into smaller pieces before or at the very beginning of entry through the atmosphere, it would indeed cause less damage because the smaller pieces are more likely to completely disintegrate before hitting the surface of the earth.