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Scientists have developed a new way to stop a dangerous asteroid from hitting Earth

AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:

Do you worry that an asteroid will slam into Earth and end all life on this planet?

(SOUNDBITE OF CRASHING)

RASCOE: Perhaps scenes from movies like "Armageddon" keep you up at night. We may have something to make your sleep a little better.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

RASCOE: Scientists may have discovered a way to knock an incoming asteroid off course. And for anyone who ever wondered, why don't we just throw a bunch of nuclear missiles at it? Well, you're kind of right.

NATHAN MOORE: A little bit different concept, but we think it may even be more effective.

RASCOE: Nathan Moore led a team of physicists at the Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M. They have discovered, you just need to set off a nuclear explosion near an asteroid, and the burst of X-rays will send it safely off target. The idea has been around for decades, but the only way to test it is with a nuclear weapon.

MOORE: And those are difficult to come by. So we invented a laboratory experiment where we could test this idea to generate an incredibly strong burst of X-rays in the laboratory.

RASCOE: His team used magnetic fields to produce these X-rays and recorded their effects on two mock asteroids, roughly the size of Tic Tacs.

MOORE: Not only does it work, but it works better than we thought.

RASCOE: And on any size asteroid. But Nathan Moore cautions that all asteroids are not alike.

MOORE: Asteroids come in many different flavors. They're made of many different types of rocks. We've only done a test on one type of mineral, so it will be important to test this idea on different minerals in our laboratory experiments to develop a full understanding of how we would deal with every type of asteroid.

RASCOE: But it's good to know we humans have options that those dinosaurs didn't when it comes to asteroids or when they come to us.

MOORE: It's certainly reassuring to know that if we are surprised by either a large asteroid or one that shows up with very little warning, if it needs a hard shove, we have a way to deal with it.

RASCOE: Bruce Willis, thank you for your service.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I DON'T WANT TO MISS A THING")

AEROSMITH: Yeah, yeah, yeah - I don't want to close my eyes... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Ayesha Rascoe is a White House correspondent for NPR. She is currently covering her third presidential administration. Rascoe's White House coverage has included a number of high profile foreign trips, including President Trump's 2019 summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi, Vietnam, and President Obama's final NATO summit in Warsaw, Poland in 2016. As a part of the White House team, she's also a regular on the NPR Politics Podcast.