I am interested in this to. From what I can gather some of the other options include using lasers to push the asteroid away, attaching a solar sail, attaching low powered rocket to adjust its course and there are others. These are all so long term and may not work. I have seen scientists mention using nukes but the results will depend greatly upon the material the object is made from. We could turn one large object into many smaller objects and be hit by a kind of 'shot gun blast'! However we could then nuke the swarm of smaller objects. Being hit by several small 'city killers' is still better than being hit by the 'doomsday rock' though. The fatal error in the doomsday movies is we only fire one nuke and one rocket! When it fails we do nothing! We may have to be prepared to fire several nukes at it. Possibly either impacting with the object or near it to try and push it off course. The nuclear option is not the only option but would be the entire planets only hope for an object discovered in the short to medium term. What fun if all nukes had been destroyed!
I to would like an experts opinion on the effects of a nuclear explosion in space. I hope the boys in charge look into these issues! Sadly I imagine they only think about the next 5 years and winning votes! The number one issue to many is the economy but the topic here is of far more importance!