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Scientists simulated a nuclear explosion using x-ray pulses to push an asteroid-like rock away in space-like conditions:

It's been almost 25 years since Bruce Willis, playing the fictional character Harry Stamper in the blockbuster movie, Armageddon, saved Earth from an asteroid careering towards the planet. In true Hollywood fashion, he did this by detonating a nuclear bomb implanted in the asteroid, preventing what scientists call a "mass extinction event". The whole world cheered (at least in the movie).

The world might be able to cheer for real now. In a study published in Nature Physics, physicists at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, US, say they have simulated a nuclear X-ray pulse directed onto the side of an asteroid to change the trajectory of the asteroid and avoid a collision with the Earth.

[...] Scientists used an X-ray pulse inside a vacuum to simulate a nuclear explosion on the surface of an asteroid-like rock in space-like conditions. The pulse created a vapour plume which pushed the rock away.

"The vaporised material shoots off one side, pushing the asteroid in the opposite direction," Dr Nathan Moore, the lead author of the new study, said in a press statement.

In an interview with Space.com, an online publication focused on space exploration and astronomy, Moore said: "You have to concentrate a lot of power, about 80 trillion watts, into a very small space, the size of a pencil lead, and very quickly, about 100 billionths of second, to generate a hot enough argon plasma, several millions of degrees, to make a powerful enough X-ray burst to heat the asteroid material surface to tens of thousands of degrees to give it enough push."

[...] Although only a simulation, the outcome of the experiment suggests that using a nuclear X-ray pulse on an asteroid could potentially change its trajectory enough to prevent a collision with the Earth.

"I knew right away that this was a huge success," said Moore.

There is a significant difference between planting a nuclear bomb on an asteroid and directing a nuclear X-ray pulse to part of an asteroid to nudge it onto a different trajectory.

If a space agency were to successfully detonate a nuclear bomb on an asteroid, scientists have cautioned that the asteroid would be likely to break into smaller chunks, potentially causing multiple asteroid impacts on Earth instead of just one.

Even if the trajectory of the biggest chunk of the asteroid was changed, there would be no guarantee that the other fragments of the asteroid would travel away from Earth.

Using an X-ray pulse, scientists can generate energy to vapourise enough material from the surface of the asteroid to result in a push that would change the trajectory of the asteroid rather than blasting it into smaller fragments.

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