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April 27, 2019 07:00 am

Scientists Live-Tweet Chilling Faux Asteroid Impact Scare

The world's top asteroid experts are gathering on Monday, April 29 at the 2019 Planetary Defense Conference in Washington D.C. to take part in a hypothetical asteroid impact exercise that will test how Earth responds to the threat of a potentially devastating space rock. CNET reports: NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office developed the exercise along with the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency. "The point is to investigate how NEO observers, space agency officials, emergency managers, decision makers, and citizens might respond to an actual impact prediction and evolving information," NASA said. The ESA Operations Twitter account is now live-tweeting the entire scenario, from the discovery of the asteroid (named 2019PDC) to the increasingly grim odds it might hit Earth. The first tweet sounds innocuous. It's a casual mention of international news reports confirming the asteroid's discovery. The team is appending each tweet with the all-caps hashtag #FICTIONALEVENT so no one will freak out. It's still sobering to follow the events, which recently worsened from a 1 in 250 chance of impact to 1 in 100. ESA Operations will continue to update the plot in the coming week. Participants will receive daily briefings and must role-play the responses from astronomers, space agencies and governments. In reality, we know of no imminent threats from asteroids, but NASA is constantly tracking their movements through space.

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