Planetary defense test deflected an asteroid but unleashed a boulder swarm
Planetary defense test deflected an asteroid but unleashed a boulder swarm
A UCLA-led study of NASA’s DART mission determined that the strategy presents previously unanticipated risks.
Good news: smaller pieces burn up much easier in the atmosphere, so in the case of an actual asteroid deflection it's still a net gain.
Bad news: more potential navigation hazards.
I think that's a fair trade.
Also, dispersing the boulders early enough means that most of them would miss Earth anyway.
I wouldn't really consider them navigation hazards, space is really big and boulders are really small. You'd have to aim a probe really precisely at one in order to hit it.
We won't have to use this defense mechanism very often anyway. Fingers crossed.
Well, it is still better to get hit with a dozen Hiroshima-nuke-scale impacts than a single dinosaur-killer-scale impact.
Statistically, the majority of them should hit ocean anyway.