Initial Parameter Study of the Response of Simple Asteroid or Cometary Nu-

There is much popular press about Potentially Haz-ardous Objects (PHOs) and how to mitigate their threat. The two mitigation options are destruction or deflec-tion of the PHO. Presently, the most technically fea-sible method of deflection is a nuclear stand-off burst [1]. However, many questions remain as to the response of an asteroid or comet to a nuclear burst. Recent in-creases in computing power and scientific understanding of the physical properties of asteroids and comets make it possible to numerically simulate the response of these porous and inhomogeneous bodies to strong shocks and radiation. Here we use the radiation-hydrocode RAGE to explore the coupling of radiation energy from a nuclear burst to a grid of simplified PHO models. We use simple 2-D axisymmetric models of 100 m diameter spherical PHOs composed of different materials to study their re-sponse to nuclear bursts of 10, 100, and 1000 kt with distances of 20 and 70 m