Australian_Science_Illustrated_Issue_52_2017

32 | SCIENCE ILLUSTRATED

5 PREPARE WHAT TO DO AFTER THE IMPACT

If a city is struck,

infrastructure will be

badly affected. NASA

recommends that the

authorities identify the most vulnerable

points of the electricity and water

systems in advance, organising them to

minimise damage. The oil and gas

industry operating by the coast must

move drill rigs and ships to safety to

avoid destruction, if the asteroid hits

the sea, causing a tsunami. Afterwards,

the US will need to ask other nations

for reconstruction assistance.

If a collision is

inevitable, the

authorities must be

as well-prepared as

possible for the disaster. So,

NASA prepares detailed scenarios

of hypothetical asteroid threats.

The impact site must be

calculated so accurately that all

affected people can be evacuated.

Critical electricity grid points are identified,

and the grid is reorganised to limit the damage.

4

PREPARE FOR

IMPACT

NASA

A

n asteroid as wide as 300-m, which carries

sufficient impact force to kill millions is heading

directly towards Earth. The threat is a worst case

scenario invented by NASA.

The asteroid is identified in 2014, and according to

calculations, it will hit somewhere in Texas seven years

later. In 2018, six probes strike the asteroid, pushing it

off course, but a 50 m fragment continues towards Earth.

30 days before impact, NASA is able to narrow down the

impact site to a 1,200 km corridor above the city of

Houston and the Gulf of Mexico, and the Emergency

Management Agency tells hospitals, fire brigades, and

utilities in the region to go on maximum alert.

Six days before the collision, it is clear that the

asteroid will strike slightly to the south-east of central

Houston, and 200,000 people are evacuated, awaiting

the destruction of their city.

NASA

As the impact date approaches, NASA can predict that the

impact site will be in the area around the city of Houston.

30 DAYS 6 DAYS

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