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Russian scientists believe that, at the present time, a nuclear explosion set off close to a dangerous asteroid remains the most effective means to change its trajectory, and thus escape the impact, TASS news agency reported on Saturday.

“In this case a nuclear blast is conducted in such a way that the asteroid does not disintegrate into smaller pieces,” explain Russian space experts. The explosion would force the ejection of material from the space body’s surface, creating sufficient thrust to affect its trajectory and sidetrack it to a safe orbit.

Four Nebosvod-S (Welkin) satellites will be commissioned to monitor near-Earth space threats. Two of them will be planetary sentries on a circumterrestrial orbit and two others will be delivered to Earth’s circumsolar orbit.

The satellites will be capable of spotting space objects measuring several meters across.