I have been following this NASA website recently: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/pdc15/ .. if you fear a life-ending asteroid, maybe you should too.
The first and most important thing to realize about the page: It is all imagined. The asteroid and work to stop it from hitting Earth is all hypothetical. But with each pretend statement about the asteroid and the would be trajectory, it seems very real. That is because the words on http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/pdc15/, though now unreal, could be accurate one day soon. We could be facing a mass extinction event. Something bigger than Chelyabinsk, something mightier. It may hit land and cause an impact zone crater on Earth. Or it could hit water and flood coastlines with a massive wave never seen during our lifetime.
The Planetary Defense Conference is a meeting of scientists, engineers, policy-makers, and people in Italy. They are playing an asteroid pre-war-game. Mapping out the possibilities and speculating on the impact aftermath.
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/pdc15/ is where people could follow online to the games.
The games..
But on the topic of the site itself, there is rampant speculation about the 'game'.. and the chances it could all be a diversion meant to keep our mind believing it's unreal and really, in the end, "they" know something is coming. The conspiracy minded folk, of which I join in now and then, think that there is a killer stalking this planet.. lurking not too far from our existence. And NASA knows it. They are so aware of it that they are going to great lengths to post this 'war game' on the internet, along with bringing the biggest and brightest minds together. Because the reality, some would say, is that they ARE INDEED planning a course of action over a real event.
My take is a little less paranoid, at least about this game. I think the simulation is that: A simulation. But I think sooner rather than later, we will be hit with something on this planet. It is my hope that we have simulated long enough to get the reason response.
And I pray to whatever gods of life exist that we will have years, and not months, to prep. And maybe decades--not days.
Chelyabinsk should have been a wake up call to the planet. Instead it became a "and finally tonight" segment on local newscasts around the world. Science is regulated too often to the "in other news" portion after sports and weather. But if Chelyabinsk would have hit NYC, or D.C., and would have been just a little bit lower in orbit, we may have been playing a whole new REAL game right about now.......
