Yes, Steven Spielberg, they are considering the nuclear option.
An artist's rendering of a meteor disintegrating as it enters the Earth's atmosphere. By Sarah Kaplan Sarah Kaplan Reporter for Speaking of Science Email Bio Follow May 3 at 1:59 PM On the second day of a conference on cosmic threats to our planet, the proceedings were interrupted by an urgent message from Paul Chodas, the manager of NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies.
Congress first mandated that NASA track near-Earth objects, or NEOs — space rocks that circle around the sun and come within 30 million miles of Earth’s orbit — in 1998, after people briefly panicked over a newly discovered asteroid that would pass by our planet. Her words were comforting to keep in mind as NASA programmer Lorien Wheeler took the stage to explain just how catastrophic an asteroid such as 2019 PDC could be.
One, the “kinetic impactor” technique, involves crashing a spacecraft into the asteroid at high velocity to slow it down. “In a real-life scenario, their interests would need to be represented,” he said. “Especially if we’re going to push the thing toward them.” If the skies are dark and weather are right, Earthlings should be able to see Apophis swish by with their naked eyes. The asteroid will resemble a shooting star as it streaks through space.
By Wednesday, the scenario fast-forwarded to December 2021. The reconnaissance spacecraft had finally given astronomers their first good look at 2019 PDC, revealing that the asteroid was actually a peanut-shaped “rubble pile” about 450 feet across and 850 feet long. “That asteroid was headed toward Denver even before it was discovered,” he said. “So it seems like very bad news, but this is actually good news, because we still have five years to deflect this thing.”
A map of the potential impact sites for the fragmented fictional asteroid 2019 PDC. The prospect of losing a global financial center was shocking, even as make-believe. “You may freeze the economy,” one audience member worried. “You might actually be looking at total economic collapse.” “It is not likely at all,” Chodas agreed, “and we’re not saying it is likely. But we will learn by studying these what-ifs.”
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