Google Tech Talk:
The Use of Nuclear Weapons to Disrupt or Divert Asteroids (Google Video, 1 h 13 min). The title says it all: a lecture on the use of nuclear explosives to protect the Earth from asteroid impacts.
Quote:
Nuclear explosives are a mature technology with well-characterized effects. Proposed utilizations include a near asteroid burst to ablate surface material and nudge the body to a safer orbit, or a direct sub-surface burst to fragment the body.
[...]
In addition to providing an greater understanding of the results of applying nuclear explosives to NEO-like bodies, these simulations suggest numerical and laboratory to improve the predictive capabilities. Finally, we will comment on some of the popular misinformation abounding about the utility of nuclear explosives.
Discuss!