Destroying life-ending asteroids headed for Earth will be tougher than we thought

Apocalyptic asteroids heading for Earth may be harder to destroy than the Hollywood sci-fi films would have us believe. Scientists studying just how easy it would be to blow up a life-threatening space rock found they are stronger and more resilient than previously imagined. They say the discovery could aid in the creation of asteroid deflection weapons and for designing efficient asteroid mining techniques. Researchers found the fallout from the enormous collision would be split into two different stages. 'We used to believe that the larger the object, the more easily it would break, because bigger objects are more likely to have flaws,' says Charles El Mir, a recent PhD graduate from Johns Hopkins University, who led the study.