NASA Has A Scary Protocol In Place If An Asteroid Was Going To Hit Earth

The thought of an asteroid racing towards Earth at full speed is quite unnerving.

Although this scenario seems straight out of a movie like Michael Bay's 1998 hit, "Armageddon," NASA really does have a strategy in place, just in case this fiction ever turns into reality.

Aside from their ongoing projects aiming to send astronauts to Mars, the American space agency is also busy with plans to tackle any potential cosmic threats.

"There are no known threats to Earth, but planetary defense expert Dr. Kelly Fast says it's important to find the asteroids before they find us," NASA points out.

Getty Images

"That's why NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office keeps its eyes on the skies."

After all, no one wants humanity to meet the same fate as the dinosaurs.

NASA has been quite open about how it prepares for such events.

In a detailed discussion with Dr. Kelly Fast, a NASA asteroid specialist, she outlines the steps that would be taken if this fictional scenario were to happen.

"Well, it's important to find asteroids before they find us in case we need to get them before they get us," Dr. Fast explained.

"An asteroid impact is the only natural disaster that could be prevented.

"NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office supports projects to discover asteroids and to calculate their orbits far into the future.

CGI of an asteroid heading for Earth. (Getty Stock Image)

"If an asteroid impact threat is discovered years or decades in advance, then a deflection mission might be possible.

"The first order of business for planetary defense is to find the asteroids."

Besides identifying and potentially destroying the threat, NASA would also issue an official alert.

They would first notify the government of the country at risk of impact, followed by a global announcement.

The public would need to be informed about the threat, and the United Nations would also be alerted.

NASA HQ. (CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images)

Past reports suggest that if an asteroid was detected years ahead, humanity would try to deflect it to prevent a collision with our planet.

However, if the asteroid were to be less than five years from impacting, the strategy would shift to blowing it up completely rather than redirecting it.

In 2022, NASA conducted a real test by exploding an asteroid in deep space through its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission.

This was a practical application of Dr. Fast's theory—testing our defense capabilities against potential asteroid threats.

The $324 million experiment aimed to determine the amount of force needed to change an asteroid's course by striking it directly.

DART targeted an asteroid called Dimorphos, which orbits another asteroid named Didymos.

Dimorphos was no threat to Earth as it was approximately 11 million kilometers away when it was hit.

The mission was highly successful, altering Dimorphos's orbit around Didymos by 32 minutes, far surpassing the initial goal of changing it by just 73 seconds.