science

“We expected aim to matter ... What surprised us was how much,' says Sandia physicist Nathan Moore

Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have developed a method to make asteroid deflection modeling faster and more detailed. Their simulations also demonstrated just how much asteroid shape and orientation can complicate efforts to deflect a threatening space rock.

Sandia researchers, led by staff physicist Nathan Moore, were looking for a way to better model how X-rays from a nuclear detonation near an asteroid can change its trajectory, as explained in a recently published research paper .

“Before, the calculations were so time-consuming, one could not do very many of them,” Moore told The Register .…