Deflecting a Comet or Asteroid with Another Asteroid or a Nuclear Missile Debated

An acquaintance of mine who has studied asteroids for decades, namely preventing one, a big one from hitting Earth has convinced himself that we need nukes, lots of them to either deflect or destroy said asteroid(s). Does this make any sense scientifically? Sure it does - got a better idea? Will it work is your next question, well it might, but realize some of these asteroids are huge as in kilometers long, and the bigger they are the harder to divert, deflect, or destroy (D3).

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Is the human race up for the challenge? Well, put it this way, if a large asteroid is coming towards Earth, we win or lose, sink or swim, adapt and survive or perish and become extinct like our friends the dinosaurs did. See that point - it is do or die, and we can't get this one wrong. It's the kind of war you can't lose, or you lose all. Not just you, and your family, but the whole human race and all the species we've evolved with here on Earth, friend or foe (think pesky mosquitoes as a nuisance or foe).

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Nukes in Space?

Ah ha, yes a sticky subject, as no one really wants to weaponize space, and initiate Star Wars, surely we've done enough fighting here on Earth, and for sure human beings need to get a life and grow up, indeed, I am sure you agree. Nevertheless, if we wait to solve this problem until we know an asteroid is indeed about to hit us, then it could very well be too late.

So, who should be in charge of saving the human race - the UN, NATO, ESA (European Space Agency), NASA, US Military, or all the militaries of the world regardless of their differences? The answer is YES. Perhaps all those - and with that thought in mind I sincerely hope you will consider all this, because we need a plan, we need one now, and it's time to set up a serious Planetary Defense System to win!

Additional Reading;

1.- News Article in ESA - European Space Agency Online Newsletter; Science and Technology entitled; "Hubble and Rosetta unmask nature of recent asteroid wreck," posted on 13 Oct 2010. (Special Note: This article cited the two papers below which can be found on Google Scholar)

2.-Research Paper; "A collision in 2009 as the origin of the debris trail of asteroid P/2010 A2," by C Snodgrass and others, published in Nature, 467, 814-816, 2010. (BC: 10.1038/nature09453).

3.-Research Paper; "A recent disruption of the main-belt asteroid P/2010 A2," by D Jewitt and others, also published in Nature, 467, 817-819, 2010. (BC: 10.1038/nature09456).

Deflecting a Comet or Asteroid with Another Asteroid or a Nuclear Missile Debated

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