An asteroid with a 72% chance of colliding with Earth on July 12, 2038 is the scenario that NASA has just tested to see how humanity would react to the impact of a gigantic space rock.
NASA hosted its fifth interagency planetary defense tabletop exercise, bringing together more than 100 participants, including the UN, the United Kingdom Space Agency (UKSA) and the European Space Agency (ESA).
Faced with the challenge of an asteroid 60 to 200 meters wide likely to strike somewhere between North America and Saudi Arabia in 14 years, these organizations had to work together to save us or identify what might hinder the process and let us prepare for the big impact.
It seems that even in the face of potential extinction, scientists and space leaders fear that politicians will fail to unite and work as a team to prevent it.
Last September, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission successfully brought samples from an asteroid, named Bennu, back to Earth.
Currently, it has about a 1 in 2,700 chance of colliding with Earth on Tuesday, September 24, 2182.
The odds of it hitting between now and 2300 are even lower, about one in 1,750.
Although the most expensive mission was estimated at just over $1 billion, with global GDP quickly approaching $100 trillion, it appears to be a wise investment, although NASA’s scenario predicts that it is more likely that 1,000 to 100,000 people will die, rather than a mass extinction.
Will A Massive Asteroid Hit Earth In 2038? NASA’s Hypothetical Exercise Shows 72% Chance (msn.com)
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