https://www.sciencenews.org/article/robin-andrews-kill-asteroid-review
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. How to Kill an Asteroid by science journalist Robin George Andrews is a deep dive into the extremely badass business of thwarting a destructive asteroid.
The book’s title is a slight misnomer. As Andrews explains, the best strategy to save the planet from an impending asteroid is not to blow it up in space — though that’s a reasonable last-ditch option — but instead to deflect it while it’s still far beyond Earth’s neighborhood. 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?