It is a plot for Hollywood: how do you stop an asteroid hurtling towards Earth and wiping out humankind?
Space agencies have proved that you can deflect an asteroid by slamming a spacecraft into it but, to protect the Earth from a killer impact, nuclear bombs could be required to push them off course, a study has warned.
We tend to picture asteroids as giant space rocks, whizzing through the solar system as solid slabs of rock left over from the formation of the solar system. Many asteroids, though, may not be quite so solid or “monolithic”, a study has found. “Rubble-pile” asteroids form after a solid asteroid is blown to smithereens in a collision, leaving the splinters of rock to coalesce under gravity.
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