Why is nuking hazardous asteroids not a viable option? I’d rather be hit by smaller pebbles instead of an actual rock

Question

Thanks everyone for answering

In: 9

Answer 1

It is a viable option – it’s a better option for some asteroids than others though. If you spot an asteroid long enough in advance, a little nudge will do and a nuke isn’t necessary.

The nuke option is good if you don’t have a lot of advance notice and there is a lot of surface ice or loose debris to blast away to impart maximum momentum in the opposite direction.

The idea wouldn’t be to destroy the object because that creates the potential for many smaller problems which wouldn’t be easy to handle. The idea is to use the thermal energy from the nuke to turn one side of the object into a massive rocket engine to give it a giant nudge.