Chinese scientists have conducted an analysis of the asteroid threat to Earth and found that the best option to minimize the chance of an asteroid someday smashing into the planet—possibly wiping out life—is through the use of nuclear weapons. The researchers said their analysis had found that in some situations, only nuclear weapons could prevent an asteroid from hitting Earth, adding that they were fully aware of international laws against the use or deployment of nuclear weapons in space, and that nuclear fallout could also cause interstellar pollution, South China Morning Post reported yesterday.
But, SCMP continues, they have urged decision-makers to think long term, and to support research and development into a nuclear-based defense to prevent a doomsday threat to humanity. “The potential risk of asteroid impacts is much higher than the assessment based on currently discovered asteroid data,” the team wrote, in a peer-reviewed paper published this month in the Chinese academic journal, Scientia Sinica Technologica.
“There may be a significant gap between the number of near-Earth asteroids that have been discovered and the actual number that exist,” said the research team, which was led by Zhang He, from the Beijing Institute of Spacecraft System Engineering.
