NASA and FEMA practice what will happen if an asteroid strikes Earth

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Both agencies, as well as some international groups, are training on what could happen if an asteroid, comet or other near-Earth object (NEO) rushes toward the planet.
This type of natural disaster is not very likely to occur, but would be catastrophic given the rare chance that this will happen, NASA said in June 2018.

The two US agencies work in partnership with international groups such as NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO), the Space Awareness Segment of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN).

The exercise will take place next week at the annual Global Defense Conference, during which scientists from around the world will gather to discuss "menacing objects" on Earth. Specifically, they will participate in a fictional scenario in which an asteroid will have a trajectory of impact with the Earth.
A spaceship makes unexpected events discovered on the asteroid Bennu

The NEO (CNEOS) research center at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has developed the fictional premise.

Here is the painting they painted: we are on March 26th. Astronomers have discovered a NEO potentially dangerous for the Earth. After following an asteroid that they dubbed PDC 2019 for several months, they determined that he had a 100 chance of having an impact on the Earth in 2027. (Scientists have established these probabilities as threshold of intervention) do?

"These exercises have really helped us in the global defense community to understand what our colleagues in the disaster management sector need to know," said Lindley Johnson, NASA's Global Defense Officer. "This exercise will help us develop more effective communications with each other and with our governments."

Practice makes perfect

NASA has participated in six similar NEO impact exercises to date. And as NASA continues to search for more accurate impact locations and possible effects, as well as orbital motion patterns, it will be able to reveal more accurate predictions in the event of a real threat.

In December, NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission finally reached the asteroid Bennu. He will spend two years studying Bennu. By studying the near-Earth asteroid, scientists hope to have more information on asteroids likely to affect the Earth, as well as on the formation and advent of planets .

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