Reply #67: That could be, although it would depend where the bomb was

[daleo]

In a flyby, much of the energy would be directed away from the comet or asteroid. How much, would depend on the relative distance between the bodies when the bomb went off.

I think if people really are worried about these events (I tend to think that they are over hyped), a test of these principles should be attempted. Right now we (I mean humanity) don't even have a launch vehicle for the job, as far as I know. Most of the recent interplanetary launches have taken advantage of rather intricate slingshot effects rather than using direct paths to the planet of interest. In an emergency, that probably wouldn't be possible.

I say we go blow up some harmless asteroid and see what happens. The money could come from the military budgets of the most powerful nations, which would bring down the chance of another war at the same time.:evilgrin: