Can't they send a probe or something to find out what the rock is composed of, as well as analysis done on earth, then during each of it 2x a year passes near earth send up rockets with lots of chemicals that, when combined on the asteroid surface, will dissolve it?
I figured it would be hard to do that for something that was hundreds of miles, but something like this is only 1300 feet wide. If we can dissolve about 27 feet of width (of course there is height and depth to worry about too, but just more chemicals) on every near pass between now and then, it would be about the size of a baseball in 24 years.
That was my own invented way of getting rid of a 'too close to call' asteroid - reduce it in size significantly before an expected hit via chemistry. I also always figured I must be missing something since it's sounds too easy.
And I don't even play a scientist on tv!
"If we can dissolve about 27 feet of width (of course there is height and depth to worry about too, but just more chemicals) on every near pass between now and then, it would be about the size of a baseball in 24 years."
Ooooor, instead of whittling it down, we could build a really large bat, and...