Editing Asteroid impact avoidance (section)

====Comet deflection possibility====
[[File:Comet-Hale-Bopp-29-03-1997 hires adj.jpg|thumb|right|"Who knows whether, when a comet shall approach this globe to destroy it&nbsp;... men will not tear rocks from their foundations by means of steam, and hurl mountains, as the giants are said to have done, against the flaming mass?"<br />— [[Lord Byron]]<ref>As quoted in ''Conversations of Lord Byron with Thomas Medwin'' (1832).</ref>]]

Following the 1994 [[Shoemaker-Levy 9]] comet impacts with Jupiter, [[Edward Teller]] proposed, to a collective of U.S. and Russian ex-[[Cold War]] weapons designers in a 1995 planetary defense workshop meeting at [[Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory]] (LLNL), that they collaborate to design a [[Nuclear weapon design#Arbitrarily large multi-staged devices|one-gigaton nuclear explosive device]], which would be equivalent to the kinetic energy of a {{convert|1|km|mi|adj=mid|-diameter|spell=in|sp=us|sigfig=1}} asteroid.<ref name="e-reports-ext.llnl.gov">[https://web.archive.org/web/20150909023233/https://e-reports-ext.llnl.gov/pdf/232015.pdf Planetary defense workshop LLNL 1995]</ref><ref name="Jason Mick">{{cite web|url=http://www.dailytech.com/Russia+US+Eye+Teamup+to+Build+Massive+Nuke+to+Save+Planet+from+an+Asteroid/article33569.htm#sthash.rQvVzS6m.dpuf|title=The mother of all bombs would sit in wait in an orbitary platform|date=October 17, 2013|author=Jason Mick|access-date=October 6, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141009190305/http://www.dailytech.com/Russia+US+Eye+Teamup+to+Build+Massive+Nuke+to+Save+Planet+from+an+Asteroid/article33569.htm#sthash.rQvVzS6m.dpuf|archive-date=October 9, 2014|url-status=dead|df=mdy-all}}</ref><ref name="publicintegrity.org">{{Cite web|url=http://publicintegrity.org/national-security/a-new-use-for-nuclear-weapons-hunting-rogue-asteroids/|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160320055111/http://www.publicintegrity.org/2013/10/16/13547/new-use-nuclear-weapons-hunting-rogue-asteroids|url-status=dead|title=A new use for nuclear weapons: hunting rogue asteroids|first=Douglas|last=Birch|date=October 16, 2013|archivedate=March 20, 2016|website=Center for Public Integrity}}</ref> The theoretical one-gigaton device would weigh about 25–30 tons, light enough to be lifted on the [[Energia (rocket)|Energia]] rocket. It could be used to instantaneously vaporize a one-kilometer asteroid, divert the paths of [[Global catastrophic risk|ELE-class asteroids]] (greater than {{convert|10|km|disp=or|sp=us}} in diameter) within short notice of a few months. With one year of notice, and at an interception location no closer than [[Jupiter]], it could also deal with the even rarer [[List of periodic comets|short period comets]] that can come out of the [[Kuiper belt]] and transit past Earth orbit within two years.{{clarify|is it 1 year or 2?|date=May 2019}} For comets of this class, with a maximum estimated diameter of {{convert|100|km|sp=us|sigfig=1}}, [[2060 Chiron|Chiron]] served as the hypothetical threat.<ref name="e-reports-ext.llnl.gov"/><ref name="Jason Mick"/><ref name="publicintegrity.org"/>

In 2013, the related National Laboratories of the [[United States Department of Energy national laboratories|US]] and [[Rosatom|Russia]] signed a deal that includes an intent to cooperate on defense from asteroids.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.energy.gov/articles/united-states-russia-sign-agreement-further-research-and-development-collaboration-nuclear|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304125747/http://energy.gov/articles/united-states-russia-sign-agreement-further-research-and-development-collaboration-nuclear|url-status=dead|title=United States, Russia Sign Agreement to Further Research and Development Collaboration in Nuclear Energy and Security|archivedate=March 4, 2016|website=Energy.gov}}</ref> The deal was meant to complement [[New START]], but Russia suspended its participation in the treaty in 2023.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Chappell |first=Bill |date=February 22, 2023 |title=What happens now after Russia suspends the last nuclear arms treaty with the U.S.? |work=NPR |url=https://www.npr.org/2023/02/22/1158529106/nuclear-treaty-new-start-putin |access-date=April 24, 2023}}</ref> As of April 2023, there has not been an official update from the White House or Moscow on how Russia's suspended participation will affect adjacent treaties.