Scientists in America have developed a new tool to simulate the use of a nuclear device to change the path of catastrophic asteroids and prevent them from colliding with Earth.
According to Planetary Science Journal, the new study provides an innovative way to model the spread of energy from a nuclear device on the surface of an asteroid.
In a first of its kind in the world, scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California (LLNL) were able to produce a nuclear fusion reaction that released more energy than it consumed, in a process called “ignition.”
Scientists hope to use the model to build on insights gained from NASA’s September 2022 Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, in which the agency deliberately crashed a spacecraft onto an asteroid to change its trajectory.
“If a true planetary defense emergency arises, decisions about launching reconnaissance and/or modification missions should be informed by the latest modeling and simulation capabilities,” the team wrote in the paper.
