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Asteroid deflection. Computer artwork of a target symbol aiming at a cluster of asteroids or comet fragments on an impact course with Earth. This could also be the result of a failed attempt to use explosives to push an asteroid off course. If the original asteroid was a loosely bound group of rocks, or the explosion was set off too close to the asteroid, then the asteroid might fragment. The resulting cluster of asteroids hitting the Earth will be just as catastrophic as the original asteroid hitting the Earth, but now the problem of deflecting them has been made six times harder. Most deflection techniques avoid using explosives. (KEYSTONE/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/VICTOR HABBICK VISIONS)