Simulate asteroid impact, mitigation, and defense scenarios

Defending Earth against asteroids

This three-minute video overview explains NASA's ambitious test to slightly alter the course of an asteroid by slamming a fast-moving space probe into its surface. Scientists hope to one day, if needed, use the technique to protect Earth from an asteroid impact.

What would happen if a massive asteroid struck Earth?

While NASA states that no known asteroid currently threatens Earth, past impacts demonstrate that the risk is real. The agency has tested deflection technology to alter an asteroid's path, as this visualization imagines a worst-case collision scenario.

Watch visualization of different-sized asteroid impacts

The animations range from a 4-meter-wide asteroid that would burn up in the atmosphere with the impact of 0.6 Hiroshima nuclear bombs to a 940-kilometer asteroid the size of the dwarf planet Ceres, which would produce a mass extinction event.

NASA monitors potentially hazardous asteroids and comets

Established in 2016, the Planetary Defense Coordination Office characterizes and tracks asteroids and comets passing within 30 million miles of Earth. Over 40,000 near-Earth asteroids have been discovered, although estimates suggest that about 14,000 more such objects remain to be found.

Explore the known asteroids, comets, and spacecraft involved in asteroid studies within our solar system with 'Eyes on Asteroids,' a 3D visualization from NASA.

Explore the known asteroids, comets, and spacecraft involved in asteroid studies within our solar system with 'Eyes on Asteroids,' a 3D visualization from NASA.

Jupiter may have affected the trajectory of the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs

Despite its reputation as Earth’s cosmic shield, Jupiter’s gravity pulls more asteroids into Earth-crossing orbits. Simulations show that Earth experiences over three times more asteroid impacts because of Jupiter’s influence than if Jupiter didn’t exist.

Simulations show unidentified asteroids around Venus may pose a threat to Earth

A new study suggests that Venus' co-orbital asteroids—space rocks that lag ahead or behind the planet—could potentially destroy cities if they strike Earth. While no observed co-orbitals currently pose a threat, observational bias prevents observation of those of greater risk.

A modern-day version of the dinosaur-killing asteroid would kill billions of people

Such an asteroid would level Central America, trigger tsunamis, spark global fires, and plunge the planet into an artificial winter lasting over a decade. Bunkers would be insufficient for survival without years of provisions.

Only 40% of city-destroying asteroids have been detected

Statistical modeling shows that while we have identified the majority of extinction-level asteroids, smaller asteroids that can cause significant damage remain elusive. Some asteroids, like the one that exploded over Chelyabinsk in 2013, can't be detected ahead of time since they come from the sun's direction.

Earth is constantly bombarded by material from space

Most of this matter is composed of small particles, with any smaller than 33 feet in diameter burning up in the atmosphere. Larger asteroids can reach the ground, and those larger than several thousand feet cause global damage, including earthquakes and tsunamis.

The next five asteroid approaches

Asteroids are zinging by our planet regularly, and some of them you can see without a telescope. Here's a regularly updated list of the next five asteroid approaches.

Simulate the impact of an antimatter bomb around the world

Using "Total Annihilator," users can click on a location on the map, select the antimatter mass, and the observation altitude before detonating the bomb. Scrolling through the left sidebar reveals the impacts of the detonation, including the sizes of the resulting fireball and thermal pulse, the spread of ionizing radiation, and the atmospheric effects.

See how distant aliens could preemptively strike humanity

Could aliens destroy us from light-years away? The team at Kurzgesagt imagines the impact of a highly sophisticated alien civilization setting out to crush humanity and considers the real-world logistics for warfare conducted across the Universe.

About 20% of asteroids are metal worlds similar to Earth's core

The biggest of these (that we know of) is 16 Psyche. Measuring 140 miles across, its iron and nickel content is potentially worth 10,000 quadrillion dollars. NASA’s mission to Psyche—reaching the asteroid in 2029—will study it to learn about its formation.

Play a space junk collection game

Developed by Astroscale, a company with a contract from the UK to remove satellites from orbit safely, the game enables players to simulate the company's planned COSMIC mission and test their space debris-catching skills.

Grasp the earth's orbit around the sun with this interactive

See why seasons exist with this interactive simulator. Toggle between different views of the earth in relation to the sun and watch as the earth's axis causes the sun to shine at different angles throughout the year, causing the weather to fluctuate and more. This simulator clarifies a process many take for granted.

Protecting astronauts against space radiation

Outside the protective atmosphere of Earth, astronauts are constantly bombarded by radiation, which, among other dangers, increases the risk cancer. While those of us on Earth can mitigate the effects of similar radiation by limiting exposure,...

Simulate the effects of government policies on climate projections

The En-ROADS tool lets you role-play as a global decision maker to explore the long-term effects of various policy ideas on climate. More than 341,000 people worldwide, including over 130 members of Congress, have used the simulation.

By 2030, experts estimate a 1 in 1000 chance of a plane being hit by space debris

As more satellites and spacecraft are launched, the rate of space debris re-entering Earth's atmosphere, including those that do not burn up completely, increases. International space agencies and air traffic control systems will need to coordinate to develop standardized methods and technical solutions to prevent and minimize future crisis scenarios.

Simulate geological activity at plate boundaries

You are given a planetary model with optional rock formation and your choice of the number of tectonic plates and their densities. Draw continents, assign forces and plate boundary types, and run the simulation across map types to observe earthquakes, volcanoes, and other geological activity.

Explore the effects of tornadoes of different scales

In this simulation, users can adjust the tornado's diameter and rotation speed to see its impact as it passes through a series of trees and a one-story home.

Simulating the moon's surface in the desert

And why is the next cohort headed there? The geological conditions in Flagstaff, Arizona, can easily echo those of the moon, making the area a prime spot to train astronauts. This article explains how scientists crafted these training grounds and why astronomers are drawn to the nearly century-old city.

Use this day trading simulator to practice buying and selling stocks while leveraging real-time data and trading charts

Want to try day trading but don't want to risk losing cash? This simulator gives users access to "unlimited" fake money, as well as the option to convert their simulation accounts to the real deal later on.

Tracking the accuracy of past and future predictions of the apocalypyse

Religious figures, scientists, technologists and others have long heralded the ending of the world in what in some traditions is called the apocalypse. This site tracks those failed predictions in the past and charts those coming up in the future.

Shooting stars, or meteors, are fragments of asteroids and comets that burn up as they enter Earth's atmosphere, creating streaks in the sky called meteor showers.

After NASA's Voyager 1 captured Earth as a single pixel as it left the solar system in 1990, astronomer Carl Sagan used the image to reflect on humanity's fragility and the responsibility to protect 'the only world we've ever known.'

AI systems identify patterns involving physics and time through 'world models'

These realistic virtual environments, such as driving simulations seen in video games, allow these systems to "learn" properties about reality beyond what can be captured in samples of text, images, and videos. Training AI in these simulated environments can help develop "physical AI" for automated robotic systems. (Some readers may experience a paywall.)

Explore chaos in this simulation of two double pendulums, where small differences in the release angles produce wildly different outcomes.

Visualize the path of every solar eclipse from 1900 to 2099 and see what each looks like when observed from different locations on Earth.

Planeterrellas create artificial auroras that mimic the atmospheric displays of light by setting up an electric field between two metal balls in a jar filled with a small amount of air.

Visualize how CRISPR-Cas9—a type of immune system used by single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses—targets and makes precise changes to a gene's DNA.

While the sun's gravity keeps the planets in orbit, their gravity also pulls on the sun, causing it and everything else in the solar system to orbit around a mutual balance point called the barycenter—the true center of the solar system.

Play the role of a student in a game where you try to navigate college and remain debt-free, selecting different income levels, high school experience, race, ethnicity, and more.

This site reaches millions of visitors who are tired of AI chatbots and seeking human connection. Pretend to be an AI chatbot and ask questions, provide answers, and draw for people in real time.

Apollo astronauts left items in the moon's 'toss zone,' including golf balls, family photos, and bags of human waste, to make room for lunar rocks.

Discover the catastrophic consequences of a failure of the US electrical grid—something that is more likely than many Americans think.

Scientists testing how climate change affects plants found, in a years-long simulation study, that poison ivy grew 70% faster with the resulting extra carbon dioxide.

In 1984, Operation Smash Hit intentionally crashed a 239-ton train into a nuclear waste canister at 100 miles per hour to prove the canister's safety, which remained completely intact and lost just 0.29 of its 100 pounds of pressure.

Browse a detailed visual analysis of over 200,000 similes—comparisons that often use 'like' or 'as'—from popular fiction to see how frequently writers the same idiomatic expressions.

Apeirophobia is an overwhelming fear of living forever, perhaps stemming from the brain's inability to conceptualize an infinite life.

Calculate how much of your tax dollars go to each federal program based on your income, filing status, and number of children

Watch how deep-sea mining equipment collects and processes polymetallic nodules—metal-rich, potato-shaped rocks—from the ocean floor and creates environmentally damaging plumes of sediments.

Stanford built a Google Maps for the Roman Empire, revealing how much it cost to travel in the ancient world

Sunflowers have long been a symbol of nuclear disarmament because they can extract large amounts of radioactive cesium from soil.

Human-to-human transmission of hantavirus remains extremely rare, so the 2026 hantavirus cruise ship outbreak doesn't mean we're facing a COVID-style pandemic risk.

In 2025, four executives from large tech companies were given positions in the US Army Reserves—including Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar, which reinforced Palantir's ties with the US military and its role as a leading defense partner.

The hormonal disorder PCOS was renamed PMOS in 2026, a move designed to improve care and research by shifting the focus to the hormonal causes of this condition that affects 1 in 8 women.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict is the largest ground war in Europe since World War II in casualties, forces mobilized, and displacement of civilians.

Massive 3D printers have been used to build homes by stacking layers of 'concrete toothpaste,' a fire-resistant material that effectively insulates against outside noise.