Instead of one huge asteroid it could become 4 tiny ones that strike all over the planet.
There's always a chance one of the smaller chunks will hit into something. Whether it be a plane, a person or a building.
If they were able to hit the target, would the smaller chunks be a threat to the planet?
For one thing, don't quote me on this, but I doubt the effectiveness of nukes in space. While the bomb itself may be a sealed unit, some form of combustion may be needed for it to ignite and explode. And the best catalyst we have for that is our own atmosphere. Second, when the bomb exploded, a lot of its potential energy would be wasted, because space is a vacuum. All that fusion and explosive power would probably just dissipate. And third, as everybody has said, breaking up an asteroid is a bad idea, because then you have many more projectiles to deal with. Instead of a grenade, you get a shotgun.
Quote from: Lady Noelle on October 02, 2014, 12:42:46 PMNASA is trying to figure out a way to have a satellite or craft that is able to capture smaller asteroids and change their trajectory away from Earth, but it is years away from ever being finished.NASA also gets almost no funding these days.
NASA is trying to figure out a way to have a satellite or craft that is able to capture smaller asteroids and change their trajectory away from Earth, but it is years away from ever being finished.
Quote from: Relatively Quiet on October 01, 2014, 09:58:18 PMFor one thing, don't quote me on this, but I doubt the effectiveness of nukes in space. While the bomb itself may be a sealed unit, some form of combustion may be needed for it to ignite and explode. And the best catalyst we have for that is our own atmosphere. Second, when the bomb exploded, a lot of its potential energy would be wasted, because space is a vacuum. All that fusion and explosive power would probably just dissipate. And third, as everybody has said, breaking up an asteroid is a bad idea, because then you have many more projectiles to deal with. Instead of a grenade, you get a shotgun.I'm no expert on the subject, but I believe that nukes can detonate just fine in vacuum, it's just that they don't cause much damage as the shock waves need a medium to travel in.