Uploaded February 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago

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Asteroids have reshaped Earth before—and scientists know another impact is inevitable. When traditional deflection methods won’t work, what’s the last resort?

At Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, experts are exploring nuclear deflection: using nuclear energy to alter an asteroid’s path or break it apart before impact. But how does it work, what are the risks, and how prepared are we to use it when the time comes?

This is the second episode in our Planetary Defense series.

Spotify: livermorelab.info/433mreQ
Apple: livermorelab.info/436tXFY

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Big Ideas Lab is a Mission.org original series.

Executive Produced by Lacey Peace and Levi Hanusch.

Sound Design, Music Edit and Mix by Daniel Brunelle.

Story Editing by Daniel Brunelle.

Audio Engineering and Editing by Matthew Powell.

Narrated by Matthew Powell.

Video Production by Levi Hanusch.

Guests featured in this episode (in order of appearance):

Cody Raskin, Design Physicist, LLNL
Mary Burkey, Staff Scientist, LLNL
Mike Owen, Computational Physicist, LLNL
Brought to you in partnership with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.