NASA and FEMA are not taking chances when it comes to extraterrestrial threats on Earth. They believe you can never be too careful, and have recently come together, along with other international groups, holding practice runs in case an asteroid would come flying into earth's atmosphere. This type of occurrence is not likely to happen, but NASA says if it were to happen, it would be catastrophic. NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO), the European Space Agency's Space Situational Awareness-NEO Segment, and the International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN), are all agencies participating in this exercise. Scientist across the world will gather and discuss a fictional scenario in which an asteroid is making its way towards Earth. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Center for NEO Studies developed this realistic idea. These drills help the planetary defense community to get an understanding of what other people, with different perspectives and views, are thinking. NASA also believes this will help develop more effective communications with the world’s governments. The continuous research over asteroids, comets, and NEO makes NASA have more exact impact locations, effects, orbital motion patterns, and more accurate predictions.
This article published by Michelle Lou and AJ Willingham, CNN, was created Friday, just four days before NASA is holding another international drill for Earth’s protection. I had no prior knowledge about this form of exercise created by NASA, nor did I have any idea there were organizations specifically developed for our Earths defense to extraterrestrial objects. I’m really glad I fell upon this though because if not I would have never known that we would even prepare, or try to prevent, something like this from happening. This article, for some reason, makes me think of the moon landing, and how legendary Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon were. At its time, the moon landing was the U.S. first step towards space investigation and exploration. With this enhancement in space technology and experience, we began to build more understanding for our solar system, ultimately helping us to realize that asteroids hitting Earth is very much possible. This article was written for those interested in Earths preservation, and also anyone like me who happened to fall upon this article on CNN. I believe this brings a more positive influence on the audience because it shows that many international powers are realizing we need a plan in case of an emergency. The purpose and importance of this article is that by studying near-Earth asteroids, scientists are gaining information about asteroids that could change Earth, as well as make predictions on how life began from the creation of planets.
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