nasa other agencies simulate possible impact of asteroid strike on los angeles creditjplcaltechnasanov 14 2016imagine if scientists discovered that an asteroid was hurtling toward los angelesthe possibility has existed on the pages of hollywood scripts but in what may be a case of life imitating art nasa the federal emergency management agency and other government agencies engaged last month in a planetary protection exercise to consider the potentially devastating consequences of a 330foot asteroid hitting the earththe simulation projected a worstcase blast wave by an asteroid strike in 2020 that could level structures across 30 miles require a mass evacuation of the los angeles area and cause tens of thousands of casualtiesin 1998 the movie armageddon dramatized an even greater fictional threat in that blockbuster a ragtag crew was sent on a mission to drill into an asteroid and set off a nuclear bomb to avert a global catastrophe as the character harry stamper portrayed by bruce willis summed up to his crewmates the united states government just asked us to save the worlddont expect the need for such hollywood heroics in real life however an asteroid that could cause such damage has no significant chance of striking earth within the next century paul chodas manager of nasas center for nearearth object studies at the jet propulsion laboratory in pasadena calif said in an emailthe center relies on several telescopes such as the catalina sky survey at the university of arizona to track potentially hazardous asteroids and comets these objects which are leftover matter from the formation of planets can come dangerously close to earth or cross its trajectorythe center lists 659 asteroids that have some probability of striking the planet but none pose a significant threat over the next century either because the probabilities are extraordinarily small or the asteroids themselves are extremely small mr chodas saidimagecreditthe aerospace corporation via nasanevertheless we must continue searching for asteroids in case there is one that is heading our way he addedthats where the planetary protection exercise conducted on oct 25 in el segundo calif comes in the simulation that projected a strike in 2020 involved representatives from nasas jet propulsion laboratory the department of energys national laboratories the air force and the california governors office of emergency serviceswhile a warning of four years may seem like a lot of time it would probably not be enough to deflect an asteroid of the size and orbit outlined in the simulation mr chodas saidengineers think the simplest way to deflect an asteroid is to build a large spacecraft and simply ram it into the asteroid years before it is predicted to hit earth he saidit could take up to two years to build such a kinetic impactor spacecraft and another year or more to reach the asteroid so in the case of this simulation an evacuation not a deflection mission was necessaryfor the organizers of asteroid day a global movement that seeks to protect the world from dangerous asteroids such planning is not