Five different asteroid orbits were analyzed, with detonations performed anywhere from a week to six months before impact. For scenarios where we can hit the asteroid two months before its expected arrival, it's possible to reduce the rain of destruction to just 0.1 percent of the original mass.
Reassuring news for those waiting to delay the apocalypse for as long as possible: A new study suggests that our last line of defense against an asteroid hitting Earth is an effective strategy after all.
That line of defence is what's known as a late-time small-body disruption, which is exactly what it sounds like. It's intended to blow relatively small asteroids to pieces when we've had very little warning time that they're on a collision course with Earth.
These latest calculations suggest that such a defense is "very effective" in protecting against asteroid hits when the impact time is less than a year away – so we can all sleep a little easier in our beds as a result.
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