Killer asteroid flattens New York in simulation exercise

(Maryland): After devastating the French Riviera in 2013, destroying Dhaka in 2015 and saving Tokyo in 2017, an international asteroid impact simulation ended Friday with its latest disaster – New York in ruins.

Despite a simulated eight years of preparation, scientists and engineers tried but failed to deflect the killer asteroid.

The exercise has become a regular event among the international community of “planetary defence” experts.

The latest edition began on Monday near Washington, with the following alert: an asteroid roughly 100m to 300m in diameter had been spotted and according to rough calculations had a 1% chance of hitting the Earth on April 29, 2027.

Each day during the conference, some 200 astronomers, engineers and emergency response specialists received new information, made decisions and awaited updates from the organisers of the game, designed by a Nasa aerospace engineer.

As fictional months ticked by in the simulation, the probability of the giant space rock crashing into Earth rose to 10% – and then to 100%.

Nasa launched a probe in 2021 to examine the threat up close. In December that year, astronomers confirmed it was headed straight to the Denver area and that the western US city would be destroyed.

The space powers of the United States, Europe, Russia, China and Japan decided to build six “kinetic impactors” – probes meant to hit the asteroid to change its trajectory.

It took time to build the impactors. The impacts were set for August 2024.

Three impactors hit the asteroid. The main body was deflected, but a smaller fragment broke off and continued its deadly path, this time towards the eastern US.

Washington considered sending a nuclear bomb to deflect the 60m rock – repeating a successful strategy that saved Tokyo last year – but it was crippled by political disagreements. All that remained was to prepare for impact.

With six months to go, experts could only predict that the asteroid was headed to the New York area.

With two months to go, it is confirmed the city will be destroyed.

The asteroid will enter the atmosphere at a blistering 69,000kph and explode 15km above Central Park.

The energy of the blast will be 1,000 times that of the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

It will destroy everything within a 15km “unsurvivable” radius, scientists said.

Manhattan will be totally razed. Windows as far as 45km away will shatter and damage will extend as far as 68km from the epicentre.

The questions raised by the scenario were endless. How do authorities evacuate ten million people? Moving people to safety from hurricanes has shown the task’s difficulty.

“Two months may not be enough time to evacuate, because you’re moving people who have to rebuild their lives. You’re going to have fleets of U-hauls,” said Brandy Johnson, an “angry citizen” in the exercise, referring to the rental moving trucks. — AFP