全球天文學家剛剛模擬了世界末日

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

在2027年4與人29日，一個改變世界的可怕事件會發生。

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.

一個名爲2019 PDC直徑60米（200英尺）的行星進入地球大氣層，以每秒鐘19公里（每小時4.3萬英里）的驚人速度，將對紐約的中央公園造成影響。

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.

最多在空氣中能釋放20兆噸的能量，是在廣島那枚原子彈的1000倍的威力，那個小行星自然是假想的，但是某一天就可能會發生。

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.

上週一整週，來自美國宇航局，聯邦緊急事務管理局（FEMA）和歐洲航天局的專家們，齊聚一堂，對於這種大災難來進行模擬實驗，來測試我們的對於此類時間的管理能力

Yeah, we didn't do great.

好吧，我們完成地不盡人意。

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.

這個實驗名爲行星防禦會議（IAA Planetary Defense Conference），模擬超過5天，時間還有8年。我們發現這個假想地行星是在2019年3月26日，所以也就是說有將近10年的時間，世界可以對此次影響來做出應對。

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.

在這個假想事件中，到2021年美國航空航天局，能夠完成對於行星的大小，軌道，成分完成偵察任務。

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

然後到2024年，三個偵察機會被送到太空，撞擊該石塊希望能夠讓小行星改變位置。

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

不過行星主體被毀，但是直徑50到80米的碎片會掉落還是會與地球發生摩擦。

"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.

“我們要做的第一步就是保護星球，知道它的外面有些什麼。”在該實驗一開始，歐洲航天局行星防禦的主管RüdigerJehn說道。

"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."

“只有這樣，通過到位的警告，我們才能一起進一步採取因對小行星撞擊地球的預防工作，或者讓它對與地球產生的破環型降到最低。”