A NASA simulation had some of the world’s brightest minds from the U.S. and European space agencies scrambling to save the planet when they were warned of (hypothetical) impending doom from an incoming asteroid. The scientists were briefed that an asteroid 35 million miles away was rapidly approaching our planet and was expected to impact within six months – their mission, destroy it, before Armageddon.  

If this were a popular Hollywood movie, the scientists would miraculously save the planet and there’d be no more to this story, but they didn’t and there is…as things didn’t exactly go to ‘plan’.

After assessing the (fictitious) asteroid’s characteristics and the chances of it smashing into earth, the scientists were bamboozled and failed to stop it from triggering Doomsday. In the simulation, the asteroid hit Eastern Europe between Prague, Czech Republic and Bavaria and as a result, it was concluded that our current asteroid defence technologies are not enough to beat an asteroid of this scale.

“Each time we participate in an exercise of this nature, we learn more about who the key players are in a disaster event, and who needs to know what information, and when,” Lindley Johnson, NASA’s Planetary Defense Officer said in a press statement. “These exercises ultimately help the planetary defence community communicate with each other and with our governments to ensure we are all coordinated should a potential impact threat be identified in the future.”

Regardless of NASA’s chilled out response to failing to protect the earth, it’s clear that our current technologies are underprepared for a situation like this and in the event that a massive rock is hurtling towards us through space right now, Bruce Willis is NOT coming to the rescue and we’re all pretty much f*cked!

So, with all that being said, do we really need to worry about an asteroid hitting our planet and ending humanity anytime soon?

Well, scientists have been keeping an eye on an asteroid known as Apophis that was expected to hit Earth in 2029 but now, NASA has ruled out that risk saying we’re safe for “at least 100 years” and that Apophis shall only closely pass Earth on April 13, 2029 – which also happens to be Friday the 13th, just saying…

Well, it was nice knowing you guys. So long and thanks for all the fish!

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