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The Torino Scale, created by Professor Richard P. Binzel with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) 16. The position uncertainty of an asteroid is usually relatively small over the time span of the observations, but it usually grows, or stretches, as the object's position is predicted farther and farther into the future. Although these scales are an amazing tool to give clear information even to non-experts, they may encounter some problems in informing the general public about the consequences of the impact and the actions that need to be taken in order to mitigate the risks. Therefore, we came up with the idea of a different scale that takes in consideration only the actual effect on ground and possibly some mitigation actions to take in order to protect as many lives as possible. The inspiration for such scale came from the Mercalli intensity scale for earthquakes. The Mercalli intensity scale is a seismic scale used for measuring the effects of an earthquake, and it is distinct from the Richter scale, which is a measure of the energy released. Such NEO Intensity Scale (NIS) should deal not only with the magnitude of the event, but also with the position on the globe and the consequent population density and building structure. Therefore, the NIS would enter in action only if the impact is certain (position 8, 9 and 10 of the Torino scale) and when the asteroid impact path on the globe is known. NIS would easily map the risk around the impact path of the asteroid, providing useful information in order to avoid a worldwide panic. Future works will develop such scale, also taking in consideration other emergency scales and studies.
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Near Earth Objects (NEOs) have periodically hit Earth throughout its history, and it is a fact that such impacts will continue to occur. Although the risk of serious collisions is extremely small, depending on the NEO size and impact point, the consequences could be catastrophic. Thanks to increased monitoring efforts, there is a high likelihood of...