This week, NASA will start preparing for the possibility of an asteroid hitting the earth in the future.
Asteroids have hit Earth before -- in the video above, you can see a 200-year-old crater in Quebec. Another such impact in Mexico wiped out the dinosaurs way back when.
But is there anything we can do now to protect our planet? NASA seems to think so.
An asteroid will hit Earth again someday, this is certain. In an effort to prepare, NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office will conduct a tabletop exercise of how they will handle an approaching asteroid.
More: NASA gives all clear: Earth safe from asteroid for 100 years
On Monday, a hypothetical asteroid will be “discovered” with a potential October impact. Each day this week, additional information will be determined and the team will make decisions -- carrying out a true simulation of a real-time potential asteroid impact scenario.
So will humans be able to “save ourselves” from a potential asteroid heading for the earth?
We’ll find out soon: Later this year, NASA will launch the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), which will impact the asteroid dimorphos in the fall of 2022 with the intention of changing the asteroid’s orbit in space!
Watch the full report in the video above.
Related: How scientists know we’re not going to get squashed by an asteroid