Time: 2024-07-15
There are many ways our civilization could come to an abrupt end , but only a handful of them have to do with forces so powerful and out of our control that they 'd be impossible to stop . An asteroid strike is one of those world - ending events we would be completely defenseless against , and the more we try to find ways around them , the more we realize that 's almost impossible . As per the most recent count , the number of near - Earth objects ( that is asteroids and comets ) , meaning the ones close enough to our planet to pose a potential danger to it , is of over 20,000.
Back in 2013 , for instance , the American space agency kicked off a series of meetings called the Planetary Defense Interagency Tabletop Exercise . Dedicated to all those with something to say in planetary defense , the exercise takes place every two years , and each time it is centered on a new impact scenario to which solutions must be found . The exercise scenario , devised by the NASA Center for Near Earth Object Studies , the group that calculates the orbit of every known near - Earth object , revolved around an asteroid " possibly several hundred yards across " having been spotted coming our way.
The simulated math performed as part of the scenario said it had a 72 percent chance of hitting our world 14 years after the moment of discovery , with the impact zones estimated to be non - descript , heavily populated areas in North America , Southern Europe , and North Africa . About 100 scientists from U.S. and international organizations scratched their heads trying to figure out the best course of action . They considered pretty much everything , from sending a reconnaissance spacecraft to learn more about the asteroid 's size , composition , and orbit , to trying to change its trajectory just like the Double Asteroid Redirection Test ( DART ) spacecraft showed we could easily do.
Even if it paints a pretty incomplete picture of what we could do about such a threat , it kind of once again makes me feel that if an asteroid is coming , were pretty much screwed . NASA hopes that by using it , we will learn about more than 90 percent of the dangerous bits of rock orbiting our planet within a 30 million miles ( 48 million km ) radius.
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