In "Asteroid Alert", Arte looks at this threat from the sky

If a potentially devastating comet were hurtling towards Earth, in real life, would the 'denial' be as 'cosmic' as in the Netflix movie

?

Would eyes necessarily be elsewhere, as if nothing had happened?

A priori, and fortunately, not.

In the documentary

, broadcast this Saturday at 10:35 p.m. on Arte, the channel takes stock of the so-called “planetary defense” programs, launched to find ways to counter this threat.

Real since it has already struck.

65 million years ago in particular.

After the impact of a celestial object 50 km in diameter, the dinosaurs and with them 80% of the animal species living on the surface of the globe disappeared.

More recently, in 1908 in Siberia, near the Tungouska River, an explosion probably caused by the disintegration of a meteorite released an energy representing a thousand times that released by the bomb dropped on Hiroshima...

“The trajectories of these objects are chaotic”

“It happened and it can happen again.

This is why we have mapped all the largest objects and we are trying to learn how to counter them, ”recalls

Patrick Michel, one of the experts interviewed in the film.

The scientific community has taken this question even more seriously since the end of the 1990s without, however, the countries involved displaying a real desire to collaborate.

In any case, several missions have been launched.

The highlight of Dart, that of NASA, is expected for September 27.

That day, if all goes well, a 550 kg probe should hit the asteroid Dimorphos (160 m in diameter) at a speed of 23,700 km/h.

The goal: to manage to deviate its course.

China also plans to disrupt the Bennu route (500 m in diameter) with rockets.

At least to show that it is possible.

Because if the different maps of space rule out any risk of a cataclysmic encounter for the next 50 or 100 years, nothing is less certain afterwards.

The calculations are complicated.

"The trajectories of these objects are chaotic," notes Patrick Michel, responsible for cooperation between the Dart project and the European mission Hera, who will analyze the results.

So just be ready.

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