{"id":616927,"date":"2026-08-02T17:20:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T17:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/616927\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T17:20:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T17:20:12","slug":"chinese-rocket-scientists-find-most-effective-way-to-nuke-a-doomsday-asteroid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/616927\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese rocket scientists find \u2018most effective\u2019 way to nuke a doomsday asteroid"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Chinese researchers believe they may have found the most effective way to destroy or deflect a large, <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/news\/china\/science\/article\/3360752\/china-plans-hit-asteroid-mach-26-projectile-planet-defence-test?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Earth-threatening asteroid<\/a> \u2013 by burying a nuclear bomb beneath its surface and exploding it.The idea is to first slam a metal penetrator into the asteroid, digging a deep hole. A second spacecraft would then drop a <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/nuclear-weapons-intercontinental-ballistic-missiles-icbms?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">nuclear bomb<\/a> into the hole and blow it up, according to a team led by researchers at the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology in Beijing.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">In simulations, a 3-megaton explosion \u2013 or around 200 Hiroshima bombs \u2013 could completely blast apart an asteroid about 100 metres (328 feet) across, the team reported in the Space: Science &amp; Technology journal in May.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The researchers also found that burying the bomb 30 metres beneath the surface could more than triple the change in the asteroid\u2019s speed compared with a shallow explosion, making it far more effective at pushing the rock off course.<\/p>\n<p>The approach \u2013 reminiscent of the 1998 disaster film Armageddon but carried out entirely by <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/news\/china\/science\/article\/3340433\/chinas-shenzhou-20-spacecraft-returns-earth-broken-and-unbroken?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">uncrewed spacecraft<\/a> \u2013 had lower technical complexity and better defence effectiveness than simply slamming a bomb into the asteroid, the researchers argued.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Instead of relying on a high-speed impact at a random spot, the two-step method allows engineers to choose where to bury the bomb and place it much deeper beneath the surface.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chinese researchers believe they may have found the most effective way to destroy or deflect a large, Earth-threatening&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":616928,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[270],"tags":[144302,20983,1793,191241,5214,13413,6599,18,40484,19,17,2663,1203,1024,133,10214,451,260481,140827],"class_list":["post-616927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-armageddon","tag-asteroid","tag-beijing","tag-china-academy-of-launch-vehicle-technology","tag-chinese","tag-dart","tag-earth","tag-eire","tag-hiroshima","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jupiter","tag-mars","tag-nasa","tag-science","tag-solar-system","tag-space","tag-space-science-technology","tag-uncrewed-spacecraft"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117027067024751145","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}