Saving Earth from Asteroid Impact: A Global Defense Strategy

A new book examines the tools in humankind’s arsenal and what’s still needed

The dinosaurs saw a grisly death at the hands of an asteroid, but who’s to say that Earth’s modern-day inhabitants won’t meet the same fate? Fortunately, scientists are already hard at work to prevent that future.

Enter DART, short for the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, which put on trial the world’s arguably best concept for a defensive weapon against incoming asteroids

In 2021, the NASA mission hurled a spacecraft toward Dimorphos, a distant asteroid moonlet that poses no threat to Earth, to see whether it could be knocked off course. On September 26, 2022, the spacecraft face-planted onto the moonlet, successfully shoving the space rock off its orbital path.

The world sorely needs more

A new book by science journalist Robin George Andrews, titled “How to Kill an Asteroid,” presents a somber truth: The DART mission concept is the only tried-and-tested defensive strategy humankind currently has in its anti-asteroid arsenal. The world sorely needs more.

Arecibo Observatory, which collapsed in 2020

was also one of Earth’s best watchdogs for suspicious asteroids. Beyond building the instruments to detect and deter cosmic cannonballs, asteroid preparedness also involves taming the geopolitical, social and economic fallout.

The physics of diversion is tricky

Which spacefaring rocks are harmless and which ones are a real threat? Will scientists be able to detect and intercept one in time? And if we manage to deflect it, will the rock fragment into a gazillion deadly bullets bound for Earth?

Arecibo Observatory, which collapsed in 2020

Nevertheless

How to Kill an Asteroid is overall more hopeful than fear-stoking. It reminds us that the world has no shortage of ideas for how to thwart an asteroid strike. And it is a rallying cry for a reinvestment in planetary defense programs to ensure we’re ready for the real thing. Scientists are already more than eager to help.

The book presents several doomsday scenarios

that the world may need to prepare for. For instance, rampant misinformation may trigger insurance scams and crash stock markets. Countries might jump-start their nuclear development programs under the guise of flinging weapons at the asteroid. Other nations might take advantage of the chaos to invade their neighbors. The world might see mass migration out of the predicted ground zero.

the book is overall more hopeful than fear-stoking. It reminds us that the world has no shortage of ideas for how to thwart an asteroid strike. And it is a rallying cry for a reinvestment in planetary defense programs to ensure we’re ready for the real thing. Scientists are already more than eager to help.

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