We all understand that the reason that most astroids that enter the atmosphere do not do a large amount of damage is that they burn up due to atmosperic friction. We all also understand that the reason some astroids do reach the ground is because they are larger to start with or are composed of denser material. We have also all been told that if a very large astroid is going to impact the earth it would do no good to blow it up even if we had the ability because we would still have all the fragments impacting the earth. I say this is wrong! It would do some good due to the fact that if you can break it up before it enters the atmosphere you expose more surface area to atmospheric heating thus more burns up before impacting the ground thus less hits the earth. QUESTION why am I wrong? why would it not help the situation by breaking up the astroid so that more burns up in the atmosphere and less mass reaches the earth surface?
