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asteroid

From a killer artificial intelligence to global nuclear winter to a human-made climate disaster, human beings are very good at creating new problems even as we solve old ones. Merely this week, NASA announced a new division that will endeavour to address a threat that's loomed over the Earth since long earlier mankind itself: a large-scale bear on from an asteroid, or comet. Called the Planetary Defence Coordination Office (PDCO), information technology will be the Western world'south primary bid to track and protect against threats incoming from elsewhere in the universe.

The basic missions volition be to observe, catalog, and rails all almost-globe objects — divers as those that are or volition come up within 1.3 astronomical units (World-Lord's day distances) of the Sun. As of right now, there are about 878 known objects larger than 1 km in bore within this range. There are more than 13,000 in total, and more a yard added every year. Each of them needs to be tracked long enough to plot its grade, and make certain it won't come too close to Earth'south own orbit.

Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 impacted Jupiter in 1994, creating a spectacular show. If only astronomers had had modern observational tools back then...

Comet Shoemaker-Levy nine impacted Jupiter in 1994, creating a spectacular show. If simply astronomers had had modern observational tools back then…

Among other sources, the PDCO will be taking data from NASA'south preexisting Near World Objects Ascertainment Program, making it a bit of a rebranding of a long-standing effort to protect against alien treats. The name and mission statement mean it is a more dramatic reference to the very real possibility of an bear on with an asteroid like the 1 that wiped out the dinosaurs. Earth has endured super-large-scale impacts before, including the ane near scientists believe created the Moon, and on a long enough timescale it's basically a statistical certainty that such an impact similar volition happen once again.

One of the big innovations embedded in this movement is enhanced coordination with other branches of government, in particular the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which is tasked with organizing disaster response. The PDCO volition track whatsoever incoming objects and, if they're to be dangerous, tin can alert FEMA near the timing, location, and size of the impact.

Atmospheric fireballs recorded from 1994-2003. Blue dots are nighttime impacts. Dot size is the brightness of the fireball.

Atmospheric impacts recorded from 1994-2003. Blue dots are nighttime impacts. Dot size is the brightness of the fireball.

But, of course, the much more interesting obligation is to implement ways of preventing impacts altogether. NASA says information technology'south working on ways of doing just that, deflecting potentially chancy incoming objects away from Globe. There is the always-popular hit-information technology-with-nukes arroyo, simply NASA's proposed Asteroid Redirect Mission shows they have more nuanced ideas besides. There'due south as well the thought of a kinetic impact, in which we only slam big, non-nuclear objects into information technology until it moves.

planet defese 2They could decide that the most reasonable approach is to land on an incoming object and fire thrusters, or even attempt for the globe'due south kickoff "gravity tractor" — a spacecraft that would use thrusters to stay near a killer asteroid much, much larger than itself, and redirect information technology through the relatively tiny gravitational potential it creates. This might sound far-fetched, but it could really work if NASA is able to spot and reach an incoming gamble far-plenty out that this dull, slow procedure tin create a meaningful deflection.