New Study Paper Claims That Humanity Already Has the Technology to Deal With a “Global Killer” Asteroid

New Study Paper Claims That Humanity Already Has the Technology to Deal With a “Global Killer” Asteroid
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The Universe is bigger than any human being would ever be able to imagine. This can obviously mean that cosmic phenomenons that have the potential of posing a threat to all life on Earth could be pretty much anywhere. 

The big question is this: is humanity prepared for the arrival of a ‘global killer’ asteroid or comet? The 1998 production “Armageddon” with Bruce Willis as the main actor was a great movie, but not very scientific. Therefore, nobody should rely on trying to save the world by sending astronauts to the space rock itself to blow it up from the interior. Luckily, the Earth’s scientists have better ideas.

A six months warning would be enough

A new study paper published in Arxiv brings us the news that many of us were hoping for: humanity is indeed capable at this point to save the planet from the threat of a giant asteroid that would approach us at some point. The condition is that scientists would need to know about the upcoming danger at least six months prior to when the impact is about to occur.

Philip Lubin and Alex Cohen, two researchers from the University of California Santa Barbara, declared as Universe Today quotes:

We show that humanity has crossed a technological threshold to prevent us from ‘going the way of the dinosaurs’,

We show that mitigation is conceivable using existing technology, even with the short time scale of 6 months warning.

The new paper proposes several different ways of diverting a dangerous space rock. However, scientists focused on one precise method.

Relying on the “Pulverize It” (PI) method

You might have already guessed what the Pulverize It (PI) method is all about. It implies using small NEDs (nuclear explosive devices) within the penetrators. These “toys” would be combined with heavy lift launch assets. Instead of destroying the asteroid, the combination would just change its path by vaporizing part of the rock’s surface.

Feel free to express your own thoughts regarding the news! Do you think a “global killer” asteroid will ever be on its way to hitting Earth and destroying humanity?


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Even since he was a child, Cristian was staring curiously at the stars, wondering about the Universe and our place in it. Today he's seeing his dream come true by writing about the latest news in astronomy. Cristian is also glad to be covering health and other science topics, having significant experience in writing about such fields.

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