The simulations showed that a 50-metre asteroid could be completely destroyed by a 300-kiloton nuclear explosion, equivalent to about 20 Hiroshima bombs. Increasing the yield to 3 megatons was enough to completely destroy a 100-metre asteroid.
Burial depth also made a big difference. For a 1km asteroid, placing a 3-megaton bomb 30 metres beneath the surface produced a velocity change of about 30cm per second – more than three times that achieved by burying it 10 metres deep and about 110 times the speed change produced during Nasa’s Dart mission.
It’s official, China is the new America.
This sounds like China’s already been shooting nukes at asteroids. Have they??
No, only NASA has tested purposefully impacting an Asteroid (with a non-nuclear, non-explosive spacecraft).
Requires qualifier: that we know of
