Anthony Frost wrote:
wrote:
bob haller wrote:

blowing up asteroids is a bad idea creating much more debris over a
wider area, doing more damage than a single impact

If the bits are small enough, won't they burn up in the atmosphere?

You still get much the same energy release even if they do so you'll
land up with a super-heated atmosphere instead of holes in the ground.

So the degree of dispursion matters *a lot*. Spread the bits across
300% of the atmosphere and the impact is a lot less. Only spread it
over 50% of the atmosphere and all the energy hits the Earth but it gets
spread over half of the planet. Only spread if over a few KM and it all
comes down as a hammer.