EVERY dot in this diagram is an object in space. Some of them are dangerously close to Earth - but NASA has a last resort up its sleeve.
A TEAM of asteroid hunters who scan the skies looking for potentially hazardous near-Earth objects, asteroids and comets heading in our direction (or more specifically, within 48 million kilometers of Earth’s orbit) are set to test a system that could save us all from a deadly impact.
At NASA, the Planetary Defense Coordination Office is responsible for the program which is effectively designed as a constant celestial lookout, while also planning and coordinating a response to any possible asteroid impacts.
And the US space agency is spruiking its work ahead of an October test which amounts to a practice run for intercepting incoming asteroids.
Lindley Johnson heads up the planetary defense office at NASA and says researchers have detected a vast majority of potentially hazardous objects in our celestial neighborhood.
“After almost 20 years of searching, over 93 per cent of the near-Earth objects larger than one kilometer are already discovered. The focus is now on finding 90 per cent of those larger than 140 meters,” he said. Read more...
A TEAM of asteroid hunters who scan the skies looking for potentially hazardous near-Earth objects, asteroids and comets heading in our direction (or more specifically, within 48 million kilometers of Earth’s orbit) are set to test a system that could save us all from a deadly impact.
At NASA, the Planetary Defense Coordination Office is responsible for the program which is effectively designed as a constant celestial lookout, while also planning and coordinating a response to any possible asteroid impacts.
And the US space agency is spruiking its work ahead of an October test which amounts to a practice run for intercepting incoming asteroids.
Lindley Johnson heads up the planetary defense office at NASA and says researchers have detected a vast majority of potentially hazardous objects in our celestial neighborhood.
“After almost 20 years of searching, over 93 per cent of the near-Earth objects larger than one kilometer are already discovered. The focus is now on finding 90 per cent of those larger than 140 meters,” he said. Read more...