![]() ![]() ![]() Realizing that there are many smaller but still terribly destructive asteroids out there, Congress has modified the Spaceguard goal to identify 90 percent of even smaller objects - 460 feet and larger - by 2020. The consensus at the conference was that the initial survey is doing fairly well although it will probably not quite meet the 2008 goal. An object that size would probably destroy civilization. In 1998, Congress gave NASA's Spaceguard Survey program a mandate of "discovering, tracking, cataloging and characterizing" 90 percent of the near-Earth objects larger than one kilometer (3,200 feet) wide by 2008. Unfortunately, the government doesn't seem to have any plan to put this expertise into action. On the promising side, scientists have a good grasp of the risks of a cosmic fender-bender, and have several ideas that could potentially stave off disaster. Last week two events in Washington - a conference on "planetary defense" held by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and the release by NASA of a report titled "Near-Earth Object Survey and Deflection Analysis of Alternatives" - gave us good news and bad on this front. What few probably realize is that there are thousands of other space objects that could hit us in the next century that could cause severe damage, if not total destruction. TIBURON, California - People have been aware for some time now that there is a slim but real possibility - about 1 in 45,000 - that an 850-foot-long asteroid called Apophis could strike Earth with catastrophic consequences on April 13, 2036. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |