Improved asteroid deflection model runs faster, reveals more doomsday worries

Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have developed a method to make asteroid deflection modeling faster and more detailed. Their simulations also demonstrated just how much asteroid shape and orientation can complicate efforts to deflect a threatening space rock.Sandia researchers, led by staff physicist Nathan Moore, were looking for a way to better model how X-rays from a nuclear detonation near an asteroid can change its trajectory, as explained in a recently published research paper.“Before, the calculations were so time-consuming, one could not do very many of them,” Moore told The Register. “So it was very difficult to explore different scenarios, different asteroids, or different mission concepts.”The complexity of...

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