A recent article about the importance of knowing the composition and physical
properties of asteroids.
And as I have always said, we need to know everything we can learn from all of
the meteorites (large and small)
that we can find and study, as well as their rate of influx:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/08/150803-space-nasa-asteroids-comets-nuclear-weapons-defense/?utm_source=NatGeo
Extracted from the article:
[Quote]
Nor do we have experience using a weapon of mass destruction as a precision
instrument. We would need to know the ideal proximity and yield of the
explosive device, as well as the asteroid’s physical properties. Is it porous
and rocky, or dense and metallic, such as the 150-foot-wide iron-nickel object
that fell to Earth 50,000 years ago, creating the nearly mile-wide Meteor
Crater in Arizona?
In other words, how does one nuke an asteroid and make sure to obliterate it so
thoroughly that the bits won't kill us like a shotgun blast?
When scientists debate methods for blowing up asteroids, they speak in terms of
“energy coupling”—how much of the explosive energy is transferred to the
target, and the effect of that energy as it travels through the asteroid.
And that’s why the composition of an asteroid can be crucial.
[unquote.]
Bob V.
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