[COLLEGE PARK] After devastating the French Riviera in 2013, destroying Dhaka in 2015 and saving Tokyo in 2017, an international asteroid impact simulation ended Friday with its latest disaster - New York in ruins.
The latest edition began Monday near Washington, with the following alert: an asteroid roughly 100 to 300 metres in diameter had been spotted and according to rough calculations had a one per cent chance of hitting the Earth on April 29, 2027.Each day during the conference, some 200 astronomers, engineers and emergency response specialists received new information, made decisions and awaited further updates from the organisers of the game, designed by a NASA aerospace engineer.
The major space powers of the United States, Europe, Russia, China and Japan decided to build six"kinetic impactors" - probes meant to hit the asteroid to change its trajectory. Washington considered sending a nuclear bomb to deflect the 60-metre rock -- repeating a successful strategy that saved Tokyo last year - but it was crippled by political disagreements.With six months to go, experts could only predict that the asteroid was headed to the New York area. With two months to go, it is confirmed the city will be destroyed.The asteroid will enter the atmosphere at a blistering 69,000 kilometres per hour and explode 15 kilometres above Central Park.
Who will pay? Who will host those displaced? How will authorities protect everything from nuclear and chemical installations to works of art?"If you knew your home was going to be destroyed six months from now, and that you weren't going back again, would you keep paying your mortgage?" asked Victoria Andrews, NASA's deputy planetary defense officer.
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