Part 8/14:
A Catastrophic Scenario: The Largest Threats
While the methods discussed are effective against small to medium-sized asteroids, the threat posed by significantly larger objects—potential "planet killers"—requires an entirely different strategy. These giant objects, like massive comets or asteroids, carry the destructive power of tens of thousands of nuclear arsenals, enough to wipe out most life on Earth.
The Challenge of Detecting and Destroying Planet Killers
Large comets, such as the 6,000-times explosion of nuclear bombs represented by comet NEOWISE, are far harder to track because they originate from the outer reaches of the solar system and are often faint and elusive. Detection times can be only months before impact, not years, severely limiting our response options.