The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) discovered in a virtual exercise that there is a 72 percent chance that a previously undiscovered asteroid will collide with Earth. The observation was made during the fifth biennial Interagency Planetary Defense Tabletop Exercise. NASA released details of the virtual exercise on June 20.
The US space agency said NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office organized the tabletop exercise in collaboration with FEMA and the State Department of Space, adding that its aim was to assess the nation’s preparedness and response capabilities in the event of a hazardous asteroid or comet threat.
“While there is no known threat of a significant asteroid impact in the near future, the virtual exercise provides valuable insights by exploring the risks, response options and opportunities for cooperation posed by a range of scenarios, from minor local damage with little warning to a global catastrophe projected years or even decades into the future,” the agency said in a statement.
“During the exercise, a hypothetical scenario was developed in which a previously undiscovered asteroid was identified. Initial calculations indicate that there is a 72% chance that it will collide with Earth in approximately 14 years,” it reads.
Regarding the size of the asteroid, it said, “The preliminary observations described in this exercise, however, were insufficient to accurately determine the asteroid’s size, composition, and long-term orbit.”
A list of other asteroids scheduled to approach Earth this month
According to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, two asteroids will pass close to Earth on June 25. The first, a 62-foot-wide asteroid called 2024 LO5, will approach Earth at a distance of 1.96 million kilometers. The second, a 77-foot-wide asteroid called 2024 KJ, will approach Earth at a distance of 5.26 million kilometers.
On June 27, the 64-foot asteroid 2019 NJ will pass at a distance of 6,610,000 kilometers. Moreover, on the same day, another asteroid 415029 (2011 UL21), measuring about 7,200 feet, will make its closest approach to Earth at 6,640,000 kilometers.
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