NASA And FEMA Fail To Deflect Incoming Asteroid In Drill

NASA and federal emergency responders ran simulations on how to deal with a “city-killer” asteroid coming close to hitting the planet.

Officials simulated what to do if a “city-killer” asteroid with a 2 percent probability of impact neared the Earth on Sept. 20, 2020. As the asteroid got closer, the simulated odds of an impact ultimately increased to 100 percent, with the strike likely to crash into Southern California.

The simulated asteroid was around 800 feet in diameter, with a possibility of making impact anywhere along a long swath of Earth, including the U.S.



Such an asteroid could strike with a force about 55 times stronger than the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima near the end of World War II. That’s more than enough force to level a city.

“It’s not a matter of if—but when—we will deal with such a situation,” Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen, an administrator at NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington, said in a press statement. “But unlike any other time in our history, we now have the ability to respond to an impact threat through continued observations, predictions, response planning and mitigation.”