Although NASA recently confirmed it can deflect a deadly asteroid from a path toward Earth, people are still wondering how they would survive if one hit our planet.
The last catastrophic impact occurred 66 million years ago, killing off the dinosaurs, and some scientists believe we’re due for another “big one.”
With this inevitable doom looming over the scientific community, researchers are tirelessly working on manuals to help humanity stay alive.
The first step would be to destroy the asteroid before it’s too late, and while the US space agency seems to have this covered, more than 2,000 potentially dangerous space rocks are waiting to slip under its radar.
The last cataclysmic impact occurred 66 million years ago, killing off the dinosaurs, and some scientists believe we’re due for another ‘big’
NASA launched its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) in 2022 for humanity’s first planetary defense mission, referred to as NASA’s “Armageddon moment.”
The craft’s target was a moonlet named Dimorphos orbiting its parent asteroid Didymos.
On September 26, the world watched as DART shot toward Dimorphos at 15,000 miles per hour, pushing it out of orbit.
And on March 1, 2023, NASA confirmed the mission was a resounding success.
The refrigerator-sized space agency satellite managed to skim 33 minutes off the orbit of a 520-foot-wide asteroid — nearly five times larger than predicted.
Scientists at Northern Arizona University said: “Serving as a proof-of-concept for the planetary defense kinetic impactor technique, DART was to show that an asteroid could be targeted in a high-velocity encounter and that the target’s orbit could have changed.’
The odds of an asteroid the size of the dinosaur-killing Chicxulub hitting our planet are one every 100 to 200 million years — but the event isn’t impossible.
If NASA fails to deflect the massive space rock, experts said the next best thing is to leave the impact zone and move away from coastal areas.
NASA launched its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) in 2022 for humanity’s first planetary defense mission, referred to as NASA’s “Armageddon moment.” The craft’s target was a moonlet called Dimorphos (pictured) orbiting its parent asteroid Didymos
NASA confirmed Monday that it successfully deflected an asteroid into space, but people are still wondering what they can do to survive if the agency’s mission fails. Pictured is the moment the spacecraft crashed into the asteroid during NASA’s DART mission
One tip is to move away from coastal areas because of the towering tsunamis the impact would create. An undersea earthquake measuring 9.1 on the Richter scale hit the coast of Japan on March 11, 2011 (pictured)
Since the Earth is 71 percent water, the asteroid is more likely to fall into the ocean.
And when that happens, the impact would create towering tsunamis that would engulf all nearby land.
An undersea earthquake measuring 9.1 on the Richter scale hit the coast of Japan on March 11, 2011.
It triggered a powerful tsunami that caused a meltdown of 3 reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and forced hundreds of thousands of residents to evacuate the area.
Official figures released in 2021 reported 19,747 dead, 6,242 injured and 2,556 missing in this tsunami disaster
And the ones created by an asteroid impact would be much more devastating.
Another tip to stay alive is to take shelter underground.
However, when an asteroid hits, it releases dust, debris, and even toxic gases that would linger in the atmosphere for years — even decades.
Another tip to stay alive is to take shelter underground. One company, called The Vivos Group, builds bunkers for $35,000 with a maximum capacity of 24 people
The bunkers are completely underground, with only one surface entrance
If you’ve come this far, scientists recommend staying at the shelter after the impact until you can prove the environment is safe
And scientists believe the safest place would be an underground bunker.
Bunkers can be expensive, ranging from $20,000 to a million dollars and more, making these shelters more of a luxury than a necessity.
One company, called The Vivos Group, builds bunkers for $35,000 with a maximum capacity of 24 people.
A complex of these facilities in South Dakota houses 10,000 people and is hailed as the “backup plan for humanity.”
If you’ve come this far, scientists recommend staying in the shelter after the impact until you can prove the environment is safe.
This can be done by constantly checking the air outside to ensure normal levels, make sure fires and floods have subsided, and no acid rain is falling from the sky.
One option eliminates the need for a survival guide and takes inspiration from the Netflix movie Don’t Look Up – wait until it’s too late and just accept the end of humanity
One option eliminates the need for a survival guide and takes inspiration from the Netflix movie Don’t Look Up – wait until it’s too late and just accept the end of humanity.
Released in January 2022, the film features Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence portraying two astronomers racing against time to warn the world of an approaching asteroid to destroy the planet.
They identify a comet coming to planet Earth in six months and 14 days and try to warn the world about its discovery, but people don’t care about bad news about the future – and Earth and all living things are destroyed in a ball of flame.
