The problem: The Earth is a bit of a sitting duck out in space. It’s rare for the planet to be hit by an asteroid large enough to do major damage, but there are very few options at our disposal if we do ever find ourselves on a collision course.
The solution: In a lab, scientists made scale models of asteroids to show that a nuclear blast could save the Earth. They blasted small chunks of metal with similar compositions to the common asteroids with x-rays that would be emitted by a nuclear blast. It doesn’t blow up the asteroid — rather, the x-rays push the rocks at roughly 70 metres per second, pointing them away from our planet.
Yes, but: Researchers think this plan could scale up to asteroids as large as four kilometres across — less than half the size of the one that wiped out the dinosaurs. Luckily, the biggest asteroid scientists currently predict will get even close to Earth is 1.4 kilometres across, and it’ll still be over 248,000 km away when it passes by in 2028.