KTLA

NASA simulation finds little to be done to prevent massive asteroid impact

There’s nothing scientists can do to stop a giant asteroid heading for Earth, a recent “tabletop” simulation exercise from NASA showed. In the exercise, U.S. and European scientists were informed of a pretend asteroid that would impact the Earth six months.

But that wasn’t enough time to intervene before impact.


“Space mission designers tried to envision what might be done to attempt to disrupt the asteroid before it impacts, but concluded the short amount of time before impact (less than 6 months) did not allow a credible space mission to be undertaken, given the current state of technology,” a NASA/JPL writeup on the simulation stated.

The Daily Mail phrased the situation this way: “NASA scientists have concluded that even a nuclear bomb wouldn’t be able to stop a giant asteroid from destroying a huge chunk of Earth.”

So the scenario in the film “Armageddon” wouldn’t happen, according to the simulation.

This segment aired on 5 Live on May 4th, 2021.