Researchers are investigating the possibility of using a disaster science fiction story to preserve Earth.

This month, a study was published that looked into the possibility of launching a nuclear weapon “millions of miles” into space to stop a devastating asteroid from destroying Earth.

Following a NASA mission in 2022 that successfully redirected a massive space rock, researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) created a modeling tool to evaluate that potential.

The new instrument, which is described in the Planetary Science Journal, aids scientists in determining whether they have any more options after NASA used a spacecraft as a kinetic impactor to divert the 2022 asteroid from its intended path during the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission.

The lead researcher, LLNL physicist Mary Burkey, said in a statement, “If we have enough warning time, we could potentially launch a nuclear device, sending it millions of miles away to an asteroid that is headed toward Earth.”

Burkey pointed out that nuclear devices had a larger percentage of energy density per unit than the space agency’s kinetic impactor, making them a more effective means of combating asteroids.

There are two conceivable outcomes when the device comes into contact with the asteroid.

“We would then detonate the device and either deflect the asteroid, keeping it intact but providing a controlled push away from Earth, or we could disrupt the asteroid, breaking it up into small, fast-moving fragments that would also miss the planet,” Burkey noted.

According to her, the LLNL operates sophisticated multiphysics simulations that account for a wide range of variables that might be used to determine the likelihood of success for a nuclear deflection mission.

According to Megan Bruck Syal, lead of LLNL’s planetary defense project, the modeling would assist decision-makers in deciding how to respond to an asteroid should a real-life threat to Earth arise.

“While the probability of a large asteroid impact during our lifetime is low, the potential consequences could be devastating,” Bruck Syal said in a statement. However, launching a nuclear weapon toward an asteroid carries some risk.

An expert on asteroids recently told the New York Times that pieces of the blown-up asteroid might still be large enough to harm Earth.

“If you miscalculate the energy you need to destroy it, you may make a lot of fragments,” said Dr. Patrick Michel.