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Charles El Mir et al, A new hybrid framework for simulating hypervelocity asteroid impacts and gravitational reaccumulation, Icarus (2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.icarus.2018.12.032
https://phys.org/news/2019-03-asteroids-stronger-harder-previously-thought.html
Modeling the destruction of asteroids in an effort to protect Earth from nasty collisions, has some new research. And a new model.
The takeaway is larger asteroids "reassemble themselves" from explosion fragments, under the asteroid's own gravity unless the explosion has far more energy than previous models indicated.
Assuming the model's results are meaningful -
In other words, we need a bigger bang. Which may mean that deflection of asteroids instead of breaking them into shards may be a more feasible approach. There is some discussion on this with Charles El Mir, the lead author, in the phys.org article.
https://phys.org/news/2019-03-asteroids-stronger-harder-previously-thought.html
Modeling the destruction of asteroids in an effort to protect Earth from nasty collisions, has some new research. And a new model.
The takeaway is larger asteroids "reassemble themselves" from explosion fragments, under the asteroid's own gravity unless the explosion has far more energy than previous models indicated.
Assuming the model's results are meaningful -
In other words, we need a bigger bang. Which may mean that deflection of asteroids instead of breaking them into shards may be a more feasible approach. There is some discussion on this with Charles El Mir, the lead author, in the phys.org article.