Posted on 07/25/2002 7:35:52 AM PDT by dead
An asteroid which could hit the Earth in 17 years time should be blown away with a nuclear weapon, an Australian astronomer said today.
If left untouched the asteroid could plummet to Earth, causing tidal waves and mayhem.
The best way to ensure it was diverted was to put a nuclear weapon beside it and blow it out of orbit, Stromlo Observatory astronomer Vince Ford said.
Scientists are still trying to determine whether the asteroid, known by NASA as 2002 NT7, will hit the Earth in 2019.
NASA says it is still too early to tell whether the remote possibility will become more likely.
Experts will have a clearer picture soon.
"As new observations come in, the situation will evolve in the next days and, as usual, either the probability associated with this object will go up somewhat, or, more probably, it will disappear," NASA said on its website.
Dr Ford said nudging it with a stockpiled nuclear weapon could help alleviate the problem for 1,000 years.
"That'd be the way to do it," Dr Ford told the Seven Network.
"Forget sending Brucie Willis up to drill into it and blow it into small bits, that's unlikely to work.
"No what you do is put a nuke along side the thing and blow it sideways...(a) use for some of the stockpile."
Dr Ford's solution echoes the plot of the movie Armageddon in which Bruce Willis starred as an oil driller who landed on an Earth-bound asteroid the size of Texas to insert nuclear charges to blow it up.
The movie had an 18-day time frame, but there was much more time to deal with 2002 NT7, Dr Ford said.
"You've got 17 years to think of how to do it but basically what you do is rendezvous with it, blow something alongside it, kick it off onto a different track," he said.
2002 NT7 is a chunk of rock four kilometres across.
"Now if that hits remember you've not just got the 20 kilometres per second movement of the asteroid, you've got the Earth coming the other way at 30km per second," Dr Ford said.
"You drop a chunk of iron travelling at 50km per second onto anything, you've got troubles.
"Let's say it hit anywhere in Europe, the whole of Europe would be well, in deep trouble.”
"Worst thing of course is if it hit the ocean.
"If this thing hit the Pacific Ocean anywhere, the whole of the Pacific rim would go, tidal waves, whatever.
"It might be the only time it's good to live in Canberra, in fact."
AAP
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