How The World Would Stop an Asteroid
According to data, An asteroid one kilometer wide or larger will hit Earth every 600,000-700,000 years. As low as those odds may seem, they were high enough for the international community to have implemented measures against a possible incoming asteroid. The first solution is the most controversial for obvious reasons: Nuking the asteroid. The theory behind this is that the impact of the nuke can redirect the asteroid away from the planet. The issue of course is the fact that the world would have to deal with the issues related to nuclear fallout. The second option is to send a spacecraft directly into the asteroid. It isn’t as strong as a nuke but with the correct speed and angle, it could redirect the asteroid. However, this is a lot harder said than done and the margin for error is extremely low. We may not have the technology to do it now, but another possibility is to use a laser beam. Yes, it does sound absurd but advanced laser technology can be strong enough to remove surface layers of the incoming asteroid. This change in mass may be enough to reorient the trajectory of the projectile, thus saving humanity.
Source:
https://www.space.com/how-stop-asteroid-from-hitting-earth
https://news.mit.edu/2020/how-deflect-asteroid-mission-0219
