Its been 66 million long years since an asteroid erased the dinosaurs and astronomers are getting antsy.
In response, NASA is resorting to increasingly desperate measures.
Aftersimulating catastrophe impactsandslapping asteroids with spaceships, the agency on Monday unveiled its most outlandish weapon yet: analgorithm.
Named Sentry-II, the system will evaluate the threats posed bynear-Earth asteroids (NEAs).
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The software is an upgrade to the original Sentry, which has been in operation since 2002.
The first version of the systemhad several shortcomings.
Sentry-II was created to overcome these limitations.
A key aspect of predicting asteroid impacts is modeling uncertainty.
While the original Sentry made some assumptions about an asteroids orbit, the new software applies a different approach.
It first models thousands of random points throughout the uncertainty region of the rocks trajectory.
The algorithm then evaluates all the possible orbits within this entire area.
As a result, Sentry-II can assess low probability impact scenarios that its assumptive predecessor could have missed.
Indeed, it can take eons before the full impact is revealed.
Scientists only recently discovered that the dino-killing asteroid may havehelped snakes to thrive on Earth.
The next devastatingspacerock could have even deeper repercussions.
Ifthe meme propheciesare to be believed, it wont just obliterate humanity it may also wreck the stock market.
Story byThomas Macaulay
Thomas is the managing editor of TNW.
He leads our coverage of European tech and oversees our talented team of writers.
Away from work, he e(show all)Thomas is the managing editor of TNW.
He leads our coverage of European tech and oversees our talented team of writers.
Away from work, he enjoys playing chess (badly) and the guitar (even worse).
