Should i nuke megaton

Instead, their focus is on relatively small asteroids, those about the size of football stadiums, notable for their abundance as well as their ability to evade asteroid-hunting observatories. Bruck Syal said. Such a diminutive asteroid may not sound like much of a danger compared to the 6. Bruck Syal.

Using high-fidelity simulations, scientists reported in a study published earlier this month that a stealthy asteroid as long as feet could be annihilated by a one-megaton nuclear device, with Ideally, asteroids targeting our blue marble would be identified decades ahead of time. But an asteroid even several years away from Earth may not be suitable for deflection.

At that stage, it may be too late to sufficiently alter its trajectory with a nudge. And if any deflection attempt proves overzealous, the asteroid may break up into smaller but still portly pieces that could hit Earth in multiple spots.

But if we are short on time, it may be our only hope. A team led by Patrick King , a physicist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, ran 3-D simulations to see whether a nuke could provide planetary salvation. The simulations showed that when the detonation took place two months or more ahead of the projected impact date, it was sufficient to ensure that almost every asteroid fragment that survived the blast missed Earth.

Any fragments that did reach Earth would probably be small enough to burn up in the atmosphere, said Dr. Bruck Syal, a study co-author. Michel said — and some may be sizable enough to impact Earth with considerable violence.

Nobody wants to wait until the last moment to see if a nuclear Hail Mary saves the world. As the video above explains , approximately 35 percent of the energy of a nuclear blast is released in the form of thermal radiation. And seeing as thermal radiation travels at approximately the speed of light, the first thing that will hit you is a flash of blinding light and heat. The light itself is enough to cause something called flash blindness - a temporary form of blindness that can last a few minutes.

The AsapSCIENCE video considers a 1 megaton bomb, which is 80 times larger than the bomb detonated over Hiroshima, but much smaller than many modern nuclear weapons more on that later. For a bomb that size, people up to 21 km 13 miles away would experience flash blindness on a clear day, and people up to 85 km Heat is an issue for those closer to the blast. Mild, first degree burns can occur up to 11 km 6. Third degree burns that cover more than 24 percent of the body will likely be fatal if people don't receive medical care immediately.

Those distances are variable, depending not just on the weather, but also on what you're wearing - white clothes can reflect some of the energy of a blast, while darker clothes will absorb it. That's unlikely to make much difference for those unfortunate enough to be at the centre of the explosion, though. The temperatures near the site of the bomb blast during the Hiroshima explosion were estimated to be , degrees Celsius , degrees Fahrenheit - which is times hotter than the temperature bodies are cremated at, so humans were almost instantly reduced to their most basic minerals.

But for those slightly further away from the centre of the blast, that's not what's most likely to kill you. As the video above explains , most of the energy released in a nuclear explosion is in the blast, which drives air away from the site of the explosion, creating sudden changes in air pressure that can crush objects and knock down buildings.