NASA prepares for apocalypse, simulates ‘doomsday’ asteroid scenario

Everyone is aware of the ‘doomsday’ asteroid that will wipe out humanity, just like it wiped out the dinosaurs. Though space agencies have made plans to destroy the space rock, now they are simulating the possible doomsday scenario of an asteroid hurtling to Earth.

NASA, along with other space agencies, is prepping for a possible doomsday scenario by rehearsing what would happen if an asteroid crashed into Earth and wiped out humanity. The organizations will play out over five days how those groups would react to a probable apocalypse.

As per The New York Post, the scenario of a huge asteroid racing towards Earth at 31,000mph is supposed to be as realistic as possible and has been developed by a division of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory that was tasked with studying near-Earth objects (NEOs).

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The rehearsal will take place throughout the week, and the International Academy of Astronautics Planetary Defense Conference will play out a tabletop scenario in which a “Potentially Hazardous Asteroid” is discovered by astronomers in the sky.

With an average size ranging from 100-300 meters, the asteroid would be the first considered to have a 1 in 50,000 chance of colliding with Earth (in the vicinity of 0.002%), which later will rise to a 1 in 100 probability of impact. The exercise is to see how quickly and effectively the firms would react and what would be the best course of action, as per Digital Trends.

“These exercises have really helped us in the planetary defense community to understand what our colleagues on the disaster management side need to know,” said Lindley Johnson, NASA’s planetary defense officer. “This exercise will help us develop more effective communications with each other and with our governments.”

However, the agencies made it clear that this simulation might sound realistic, but is completely fictional. “Although realistic, [this scenario] is completely fictional and does not describe an actual asteroid impact.”