P3_ 1_Saving The Earth

Abstract

Each year hundreds of asteroids will impact the Earth, the majority simply burn up in the atmosphere while those reaching the surface cause only localised damage at the point of impact. However, were an asteroid of significant size (>1km in diameter) to impact the Earth there would be disastrous climatic changes to the whole globe which could conceivably result in the deaths of a large population of the Human race, or possibly even extinction. With this in mind H. Teller proposes a feasibility study for the deflection of large asteroids that are on a collision course with Earth using nuclear weapons (JST Vol. 7 No. 1, 2008).