 will any of us be part of a doomsday scenario in our lifetimes? NASA are preparing for the worst and as the Apophis approach draws even closer, a mobilisation is underway to redirect or destroy potential extinction level asteroids and NASA recently obliterated the Czech Republic as asteroid simulations show the true extent of global devastation and the researchers at the Big Think shows us that an extinction level asteroid couldn't be stopped even with six months notice, these actions are hypothetically thought out. Wait till you hear this, hypothetically. The Asteroid 2021 PDC was first spotted on April 19th 2021 by the Pan Stars project at the University of Hawaii. By May 2 astronomers were 100% certain it was going to strike the earth somewhere in Europe or North Africa and on October 20th 2021 the asteroid plowed into Europe taking countless lives and there was absolutely nothing anyone could do to deflect it from its deadly course. So called experts could only warn a panicking population to get out of the way as soon as possible if that was even possible. This scenario was the result of a recently concluded NASA thought experiment. The question the agency sought to answer was this, if we discovered a potentially deadly asteroid destined to hit the earth within six months is there anything that world governments could do to prevent a horrifying catastrophe? And the disturbing answer is no, not with currently available technology but the dark mission offers a glimpse of survival at least. While the people of earth can breathe easy for now, the simulation conducted by NASA's JPL Center for Near Earth Object Studies was presented at the 7th IAA Planetary Defense Conference and this is troubling. Space agencies spot near-earth objects all the time, many are larger than 140 meters in size and this just so happens to be the mass capable of unleashing a global catastrophe. With our current technology, spotting a near-earth object comes down to where we just happen to have a telescope pointing in that direction or not. And to try to remove this blind spot of humanity, the Planetary Society, the same organization that deployed Earth's first light sails, is developing the near-earth object's surveillance spacecraft, which they plan to deploy in 2025, four years before the first flyby of asteroid Apophis. According to the Planetary Society, it will be able to detect 90% of near-earth objects of 140 meters or larger, a vast improvement. The NASA JPL exercise made it clear that six months is just not enough time with our current technologies to prepare and launch a mission in time to nudge a near-earth object off its current course. Small course adjustments of course become very significant over great distances and this is why nudging an asteroid is a potential strategy. Experts believe that shooting laser beams into an incoming rock, exciting as it may look, is not a realistic possibility. Targeted nuclear blasts might work, but forget about landing Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler on an asteroid, to set off a course-altering bomb, especially just a few months after its discovery, as was the case in the movie of course. Another thing that experts believe might work is crashing a spacecraft into a near-earth object hard enough to shift its course, and that's exactly the idea behind NASA's double asteroid redirection test, the DART mission, and this mission will shoot a spacecraft at a non-threatening asteroid called DeMorphis in the fall of 2022 in the hope of changing its trajectory. The harrowing, tabletop exercise as NASA's JPL called it, took place over four days at a conference. On the first day of the project, April 19th, 2021, the asteroid named 2021 PDC is discovered, 35 million miles away. Scientists calculate it has a 1 in 20 chance of striking the Earth. On the second day of the conference, May 2nd, 2021, it was discovered that asteroid 2021 PDC will hit the Earth, and space mission designers attempt to dream up a response. And they concluded that with less than six months to impact, there was not enough time to realistically mount a mission to disrupt the near-earth object's course. Day 3, June 30th, and images from the world's four largest telescopes reveal it's an area of Europe that will take the impact first. Space-based infrared measurements narrow object size down to between 35 and 700 meters, and this would pack a punch similar to a 1.2 megaton nuclear bomb. Day 4, October 14th, six days before the impact, the asteroid is just 6.3 million kilometers from Earth. And finally, the Goldstone Solar System radar has been able to assess the size of 2021 PDC. Scientists calculate the blast from the asteroid will be primarily confirmed to the border region between Germany, Chechnya, Austria, Slovenia and Croatia. And with this information, the disaster response experts develop plans for addressing the human toll. But what do you guys think about this anyway? Comments below, and as always, thank you for watching.