Don’t panic: NASA is just simulating a potentially catastrophic asteroid impact this week
Anyone who has been following the European Space Agency’s Twitter account over the past week may have gotten a small scare when the organization started tweeting about an “enormous asteroid” that’s on track to hit our planet in 2027.
The good news is that’s not actually going to happen.
ESA is just one of many space agencies and organizations participating in a simulated scenario of what would happen if humans did discover a massive asteroid heading our way. It’s an exercise that NASA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and others do every year to figure out how the world should respond to such a terrifying event. It’s coordinated through NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies, which is hosting a conference this week that’s...