NASA and its colleagues around the world conducted a “table exercise” last month to determine the time it would take scientists to understand and find paths to a catastrophic collision of an asteroid impacting Earth. The simulation was hypothetical and was intended to give scientists time to prepare for such situations, should they arise. You set the scenario: A mysterious asteroid is approaching Earth from a distance of 56.3 million kilometers and is expected to hit the planet in six months. Scientists sat down for a week beginning April 26th to plan ways to stop or change the direction of the hypothetical asteroid called the 2021 PDC.
Participants were given information about the asteroid every day, which represented one month on the exercise timeline. The asteroid was found to be between 35 m and 700 m in size. With each hour the scientists began to develop information.
Finally, on day two, they confirmed that in six months’ time the asteroid impact will hit a vast region, including Europe and North Africa. By the end of the week, they said with some certainty that the asteroid between Germany and the Czech Republic would hit.
The scientists later concluded that there is currently no technology available to prevent a massive asteroid from wiping out the world. It would take more than six months to deflect the asteroid.
The scientists said in a statement that when faced with the hypothetical scenario in real life, “with current capabilities, we couldn’t launch a spaceship on such short notice.”
They also said that using a nuclear explosive device to destroy the asteroid could reduce the risk of damage even in the absence of a clear understanding of the asteroid’s properties. However, the ability of typical nuclear explosive devices to robustly destroy near-earth objects may not be sufficient for larger asteroids.
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