全球天文学家刚刚模拟了世界末日

On 29 April, 2027, a terrible and world-changing event occurred.

在2027年4与人29日，一个改变世界的可怕事件会发生。

A 60-metre (200-foot) asteroid called 2019 PDCentered Earth's atmosphere at a shocking speed of 19 kilometres per second (43,000 mph) and impacted over New York's Central Park.

一个名为2019 PDC直径60米（200英尺）的行星进入地球大气层，以每秒钟19公里（每小时4.3万英里）的惊人速度，将对纽约的中央公园造成影响。

Up to 20 megatons of energy were released in the airburst – 1,000 times the energy of the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima.That asteroid was, of course, hypothetical; but one day it could be a real scenario.

最多在空气中能释放20兆吨的能量，是在广岛那枚原子弹的1000倍的威力，那个小行星自然是假想的，但是某一天就可能会发生。

Over the last week, a group of space experts, including those from NASA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the European Space Agency (ESA), came together and conducted a simulation experiment to test our management of this sort of impending disaster.

上周一整周，来自美国宇航局，联邦紧急事务管理局（FEMA）和欧洲航天局的专家们，齐聚一堂，对于这种大灾难来进行模拟实验，来测试我们的对于此类时间的管理能力

Yeah, we didn't do great.

好吧，我们完成地不尽人意。

The experiment, called the IAA Planetary Defense Conference, ran over five days, but the timeframe was 8 years – we discovered the hypothetical asteroid on 26 March 2019, so the world had nearly a decade before the impact to work out what to do.

这个实验名为行星防御会议（IAA Planetary Defense Conference），模拟超过5天，时间还有8年。我们发现这个假想地行星是在2019年3月26日，所以也就是说有将近10年的时间，世界可以对此次影响来做出应对。

In the hypothetical scenario, by 2021 NASA had sent out a reconnaissance mission to find out more about the asteroid's size, orbit, and composition.

在这个假想事件中，到2021年美国航空航天局，能够完成对于行星的大小，轨道，成分完成侦察任务。

Then, in 2024, three probes were sent to crash into the space rock to hopefully push the asteroid away.

然后到2024年，三个侦察机会被送到太空，撞击该石块希望能够让小行星改变位置。

Although the main body was deflected, a 50-80 metre fragment broke off and was still on track to collide with Earth.

不过行星主体被毁，但是直径50到80米的碎片会掉落还是会与地球发生摩擦。

"The first step in protecting our planet is knowing what's out there," RüdigerJehn, ESA's Head of Planetary Defense, explained at the start of the week.

“我们要做的第一步就是保护星球，知道它的外面有些什么。”在该实验一开始，欧洲航天局行星防御的主管RüdigerJehn说道。

"Only then, with enough warning, can we take the steps needed to prevent an asteroid strike altogether, or to minimise the damage it does on the ground."

“只有这样，通过到位的警告，我们才能一起进一步采取因对小行星撞击地球的预防工作，或者让它对与地球产生的破环型降到最低。”