Our nukes have bo place on earth maybe we could use them to shoot asteroids!
2006-07-17 06:19:22 · 14 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
If you are interested. There is a method for defending against extraterrestrial bodies (i.e. asteroids, comets) called a gravitational tractor. Basically we would place a ship close enough to the object...and then use the gravitational pull between the ship and the asteroid to steer it off of the collision course with Earth. There are several reasons why we don't send nukes into space though. One major reason is the treaties in effect that ban military weaponry in space. Another is that we can't garantee it won't go off in transport....and when nuclear weapons go off high in our atmosphere it can cause bad reactions that could possibly incinirate the atmosphere itself. Another reason was stated above also...it takes alot of force to move these extra planetary bodies off of their natural course. We could throw ever nuke we have at one and the best we could hope for is to shatter it like a window. which means that instead of one big rock that would hit one spot on the earth...we could seriously have BILLIONS of radioactive pieces raining down on us for weeks or months.
2006-07-17 07:50:45 · answer #1 · answered by Dustin S 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Why does every single person who watches a Hollywood "end of days" movie about an asteriod think that all we have to do is hit it with a fusion bomb?! There are several reasons why this would not work. First, assuming the asteroid was of any size, a nuclear explosion- even the strongest we can produce today- would not make a dent in it. Second, if the asteroid was small engough to be demolish completly, it is very likely that the combined gravity of the individual particles would simply re-congele it back into an asteroid. Even if it did not re-congele, now you have a bunch of smaller meteorites heading towards the planet intead of one big one. The best part is: Now they're radioactive! The much more logical way to divert an asteroid is to slowly move it over a longer period of time.
2006-07-17 08:03:50 · answer #2 · answered by Grant H 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If a big asteroid was coming straight at us, the risk from accidental explosion of the rocket would be minuscule compared to the risk from the asteroid. The asteroid could kill hundreds of millions of people - one wrong launch might kill a few thousand over Florida.
But the evidence now suggests that (many) asteroids aren't very compact: they're not big solid rocks that could be knocked off course by one punch, but more like gravel loosely held together by gravity. So a nuclear explosion would just reshape it, not dissipate it. So it needs to be shifted off course by slow processes like painting it white and shining light at it.
If it was a big rock and did break it up into much smaller pieces, most or all of these would burn up in the atmosphere. (Smaller surface areas for the ablation to work on.) And we've had atomic explosion radiation in the atmosphere for many decades and it doesn't hurt anyone much; there's just a bit more radioactive strontium in older people's bones.
2006-07-17 08:35:40 · answer #3 · answered by Nicholas W 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hey u should ask that to the NASA guys after Columbia blew up. till date there is no secure method or fail safe method to carry anything to space leave alone a nuke. No one can take the risk of a nuke being disintegrated in out atmosphere. Its a highly irresponsible act.
Well if u could get it securely till ISS....Then y not?
But I am pretty sure there are better ways to counter meteorites than Nukes.
2006-07-17 07:21:23 · answer #4 · answered by sudhir 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No. But there are other plans to defend the planet against asteroids; some of them use nukes (but not at the ISS) and some do not.
2006-07-17 06:25:45 · answer #5 · answered by campbelp2002 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Metorites are not the problem. For the most part they disintegrate when they hit our atmosphere. It is gonzo planet killer asteroids we have to watch out for. The movie "Armageddon" notwithstanding, I don't think nukes would do much. Plus you gotta be able to hit the thing in the first place. That may take more years of planning than we would have in such a situation.
2006-07-17 18:38:11 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The idea is not to destroy the asteroid but to knock it off course by denonating an explosive along side it so force knocks it off at an angle so it flys past the earth.
2006-07-20 08:59:53 · answer #7 · answered by ADH 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Nope. The gravitational forces upon launch could cause the devices to go off. Additionally, nuclear testing in space has never been done, so no one is sure what would happen if one went off outside of the atmosphere.
2006-07-17 06:32:29 · answer #8 · answered by PDK 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They do have a place on Earth. To shoot asteroids.
2006-07-17 06:25:23 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Taking radioactive material up with a launch is too risky, one failure would release enough radiation to kill us all.
Breaking up a meteorite with a nuclear warhead would just mean we're bombarded with lots of radioactive rocks.
Conventional weapons will do the job just fine. Radioactive material should be stored in empty oil wells. They tend to be in geographically stable areas.
2006-07-17 06:25:12 · answer #10 · answered by sarah c 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋