NASA’s recent hypothetical exercise revealed a 72% chance of a potentially hazardous asteroid impacting Earth, highlighting potential preparedness gaps.

The exercise, part of NASA’s fifth biennial Planetary Defense Interagency Tabletop Exercise conducted in April, included nearly 100 representatives from US government agencies and international collaborators.

Held at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, the exercise aimed to assess Earth’s readiness for an asteroid threat, despite no significant threats currently known.

NASA’s report emphasized that the exercise offered valuable insights into risks, response strategies, and collaboration opportunities, NDTV has reported.

Lindley Johnson, NASA’s planetary defense officer emeritus, noted the unique challenge of predicting and preventing a large asteroid impact, a natural disaster that technology can foresee years in advance.

The exercise scenario involved a hypothetical asteroid with a 72% chance of impacting Earth on July 12, 2038, but initial data was insufficient to accurately determine the asteroid’s size, composition, and trajectory.

Written by B.C. Begley