Ever wondered what it’s like to experience an asteroid attack?
It seems like international space agency NASA also has the exact same thing in mind, so they devised what, to them, is the perfect plan: launch a fake asteroid towards the Earth and see how it goes.
Just kidding. Well, at least in a literal sense. Actually, NASA really is planning to launch a fake asteroid towards the Earth. The asteroid will be the size of the Washington Monument and will have a 1/100 chance of smashing into our planet.
The good news is that it’s not actually going to happen in real life. The plan is nothing but a realistic simulation of what could happen in case an asteroid crashes into our planet. And according to the hypothetical plan, scientists are also going to take up eight years to plan a defense strategy, just in case it does hit us.
If it sounds like madness to you, that’s because it kind of is.
Nevertheless, the main benefits of this practice is that, like all drills, it can help our scientists prepare for a possible counterattack or defense when the real thing arrives. Currently, the plan is to build and launch a complex spacecraft that could orbit the asteroid before it hits us. Hopefully though, it won’t be after eight years.