For long it has been claimed that an asteroid could trigger armageddon or the end of the Earth. It has happened before and therefore, it can happen again. Now, scientists want to do someting about it to save the Earth. They are claiming that nuking the asteroid speeding towards the Earth can prevent an armageddon and that this strategy could actually work.

In a research paper published in the journal Acta Astronautica, researchers from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have revealed that a nuclear explosion or a kinetic impactor could deflect an asteroid that is on course to collide with the Earth. The device would coax the asteroid away from its path to the Earth with a slight change in speed. This nuclear explosion would deflect the asteroid from its original path.

But if an asteroid is noticed too late deflection may not work, the researchers have a backup plan in place. They have proposed a nuclear device with enough energy to break up the asteroid into tiny fragments.

“We focused on studying ‘late’ disruptions, meaning that the impacting body is broken apart shortly before it impacts. When you have plenty of time – typically decade-long timescales — it is generally preferred that kinetic impactors are used to deflect the impacting body,” Physicist Patrick King told Science Alert. During their research, they looked at the impact of a 1-megaton-yield nuclear bomb hitting a 100-meter (328-foot) wide asteroid.

They analysed five different asteroid orbits with detonations being performed anywhere from a week to six months before impact. Upon analysis, they determined that if the asteroid is a bigger pile of rock, there is a chance of reducing its impact mass to 1% if it is hit in six months ahead of its due date.

“We focused on studying ‘late’ disruptions, meaning that the impacting body is broken apart shortly before it impacts…When you have plenty of time – typically decade-long timescales – it is generally preferred that kinetic impactors are used to deflect the impacting body,” King added.