NASA plans an asteroid response to crash into Earth

NASA plans to rehearse the situation assuming an asteroid collided with the Earth in Southern California on September 20, 2020.

NASA and the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) are working on a plan to protect people in an unexpected situation of discovering a large asteroid about to collide with the Earth, Nature World News on Monday. 6/11 reported.

NASA is closely monitoring the number of asteroids located near the Earth with the support of a network of research facilities both on the ground and in space. Scientists estimate there are nearly 10,000 such objects. At least 10% of them are more than 1,000 meters in diameter and can destroy the Earth.

NASA organized rehearsal of the situation of asteroids colliding with the Earth in 2020. (Photo: Alamy).

"It is important to organize a disaster rehearsal, but a big impact , " said Craig Fugate, FEMA director.

The exercise is based on the assumption of an asteroid of about 90-250m in size and nearly 2% of the possibility of colliding with the Earth on September 20, 2020. The asteroid's trajectory then changes, resulting in a 65% increase in probability and 100% in May 2017 eventually. A few months later, the team identified the collision area located in Southern California.

"Then the problem is no longer the ability to collide but time to collide , " said Thomas Zurbuchen, deputy manager of NASA's Scientific Mission Department.

He said the team now has the resources and ability to deal with such a collision by observing, predicting, planning and mitigating situations on a consistent basis. NASA will provide experts for FEMA through the Planetary Coordinating Agency. The teams then continue to organize a collision situation drill with additional representatives from state and local agencies.