
Originally Posted by
Flagg
The asteroid that killed the dinosaurs was estimated at only being 10 km in length, yet when it hit, it had the force of a 100 million mega tonnes. It left a crater around 180 km in diameter and 10 km deep. Fifty percent of all life was killed on initial impact, with upto 90% being wiped out when all was said and done. If it wasnt for the last asteroid hitting, humans would not be around today.
Most people think the best you can do is just fire a nuke at one, which is a terrible idea, cause you turn one asteroid into several hundred heading for earth. The best thing to do is to maybe detonate rockets near it, so the shockwave sends it off course. You would need to do this with the asteroid still far away (beyond Mars), which means putting a ridiculous amount of fuel in one just to reach it's target. Then you have to hope that you can guide one to the exact location to generate a shockwave capable of steering an asteroid off course.
An asteroid heading directly towards us today would still be very bad.