Avoiding Armageddon: Nuke could turn Toutatis to space dust before asteroid potentially makes a fireball of earth, say Chinese scientists
Team believes 5km-wide asteroid has loose, rubble-like structure that could be effectively disintegrated by a warhead, but fragments may still penetrate atmosphere to wreak havoc
The biggest asteroid to cross the earth’s orbit, 4179 Toutatis, poses a threat to the planet but could probably be obliterated by a nuclear warhead as it is likely just a pile of rubble glued together by microgravity, according to a new study by Chinese scientists.
The last time Toutatis - named after a Celtic god- made a “fly-by” in 2012, China sent its Chang’e 2 space probe - named after the Chinese goddess of the moon - up to get a closer look.
It got within 770 metres of the surface of the asteroid, which measures about 5 kilometres in width.
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Scientists widely believe that a celestial body with a diametre one-fith this size would generate an impact that could be felt globally if it ever struck earth.
As such, even though Toutatis may seem about as threatening as a peanut rotating in space when framed against the earth’s colossal size, it could cause catastrophic damage if it were ever to touch down.
An asteroid twice its size is believed to have caused dinosaurs to become extinct 65 million years ago.
“Men are not dinosaurs. We wont accept our doomsday without a fight,” said Professor Ji Jianghui, lead scientist of the latest study.