US study finds that NASA cannot meet goal of spotting nearly all Earth-threatening asteroids

[torontosubway 11]

NASA is charged with seeking out nearly all the asteroids that threaten Earth but does not have the money to do the job, a U.S. government report says.

That is because even though Congress assigned the space agency this mission four years ago, it never gave NASA money to build the necessary telescopes, the new National Academy of Sciences report says. Specifically, NASA has been ordered to spot 90 per cent of the potentially deadly rocks hurtling through space by 2020.

Even so, NASA says it has completed about one-third of its assignment with its current telescope system.

NASA estimates that there are about 20,000 asteroids and comets in our solar system that are potential threats to Earth. They are larger than 460 feet (140 metres) in diameter - slightly smaller than a sports stadium in New Orleans. So far, scientists know where about 6,000 of these objects are.

Rocks between 460 feet and 3,280 feet (1,000 metres) in diameter can devastate an entire region but not the entire globe, said Lindley Johnson, NASA's manager of the near-Earth objects program. Objects bigger than that are even more threatening, of course.

Just last month astronomers were surprised when an object of unknown size and origin bashed into Jupiter and created an Earth-sized bruise that is still spreading. Jupiter does get slammed more often than Earth because of its immense gravity, enormous size and location.

Disaster movies like "Armageddon" and near misses in previous years may have scared people and alerted them to a serious issue. But when it comes to doing something about monitoring the threat, the academy concluded "there has been relatively little effort by the U.S. government."

And the U.S. government is practically the only government doing anything at all, the report found.

"It shows we have a problem we're not addressing," said Louis Friedman, executive director of the Planetary Society, an advocacy group.

NASA calculated that to spot the asteroids as required by law would cost about $800 million between now and 2020, either with a new ground-based telescope or a space observation system, Johnson said. If NASA got only $300 million it could find most asteroids bigger than 1,000 feet (300 metres) across, he said.

But so far NASA has gotten neither sum.

It may never get the money, said John Logsdon, a space policy professor at George Washington University.

"The program is a little bit of a lame duck," Logsdon said. There is not a big enough group pushing for the money, he said.

At the moment, NASA has identified about five near-Earth objects that pose better than a 1-in-a-million risk of hitting our planet and being big enough to cause serious damage, Johnson said. That number changes from time to time, usually with new asteroids added and old ones removed as more information is gathered on their orbits.

The space rocks astronomers are keeping a closest eye on are a 430-foot (130-meter) diameter rock that has a 1-in-3,000 chance of hitting Earth in 2048 and a much-talked about asteroid, Apophis, which is twice that size and has a one-in-43,000 chance of hitting in 2036, 2037 or 2069.

Last month, NASA started a new Web site for the public to learn about threatening near-Earth objects.

For more info - http://sync.sympatico.msn.ca/News/ContentPosting?newsitemid=124308128&feedname=CP-SCIENCE&show=False&number=0&showbyline=True&subtitle=&detect=&abc=abc&date=false&pagenumber=1

and the NASA's near-Earth object site: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch/

[blade2k5 1,523]

I read about this several days ago, not surprising considering the number of rocks floating about. As for an asteroid or comet strike on the Earth, it will happen again, but I'm not worried about it. If it happened in my lifetime, I'd probably go outside the day it hits and watch it come in.

[torontosubway 11]

Originally posted by: blade2k5

 As for an asteroid or comet strike on the Earth, it will happen again, but I'm not worried about it. If it happened in my lifetime, I'd probably go outside the day it hits and watch it come in.quote>

Agree

[gianthaiku 5]

me too. it probably wont happen in our lifetimes

[torontosubway 11]

Originally posted by: gianthaiku

me too. it probably wont happen in our lifetimesquote>

prolly, but expect the unexpected

[Explodingsims 3]

What would we be able to do if a large enough asteroid came towards Earth? Launch a nuke at it?

Although by the time this happens, we'll probably have something to counter it.

Also, to borrow a joke, it would be epic if there was a chocolate asteroid headed for Earth.

[D_DERIDEX 0]

Perhaps a bit off topic, but it's not just asteroids that threaten this planet. Natural phenomena called gamma ray bursts also pack a punch.

6:11

Take it with an open mind

[Terring 6,476]

"What would we be able to do if a large enough asteroid came towards Earth? Launch a nuke at it?"

Bad idea, the asteroid will explode but the pieces will be full of radiation when some of them strikes Earth. It's better to launch spacecrafts to change the orbit of the asteroid so it will not hit our planet. As about the economical situation, the U.S.A. government prefer to waste billion and trillion of dollars for wars and weapons than spent them for environmental, charitable and scientific purposes. Asteroids will not destroy the humanity, out irresponsibility will do it.

[sneakeypete 16]

Yeah, a rocket launching a payload to slightly alter its orbit *before* it gets way to close would be the way to go. You have to remember that due to the way orbits are, its likely that we'll have a lot of warning about "the big one", and it might even possibly pass by us close on multiple occasions before it actually hits, so plenty of time to do stuff about it. People have put a lot of thought into it aswell, someone even suggested last year that an asteroid that was on a collosion course could be wrapped in a thin reflective coating so that the solar wind would push it just enough to take its orbit outside earths.

[GlobexCo 33]

I hope it'll happen when I'll be bored of SC4 and CXL!

[fukuda 351]

Are you fear that a asteroid will hit Earth and make devastating harm (sic)quote>

The chances of me dying tomorrow in a car crash are several orders of magnitude higher than this so.. no.

[Duke87 1,070]

Originally posted by: terring

"What would we be able to do if a large enough asteroid came towards Earth? Launch a nuke at it?"

Bad idea, the asteroid will explode but the pieces will be full of radiation when some of them strikes Earth.quote>

Non-issue. What makes areas radioactive after a nuke goes off on earth is fallout. Dust and particulate material retain radiation readily. Solid hard masses (like, say, giant rocks hurtling through space) do not. In addition, since explosions spread out in all directions... most of the radiation will be pointed decidedly away from the asteroid.

There is, however, another reason why a nuke or any sort of explosive to blow the thing up is not a practical option: no air in space. See, what makes explosions so destructive is not the energy or heat of the explosion itself, but the resulting pressure wave. Detonate a bomb in space and it'll barely tickle anything nearby. In order to blow the thing up, you'd have to design it to penetrate itself under the surface by some means and then blow up within the asteroid. Simply detonating it on impact isn't going to do much damage.

The energy from the explosion can, however, if the impact is properly angled, deflect the path of the asteroid.

Also, the poll question is epic:

Are you fear that a asteroid will hit Earth and make devastating harmquote>

Shall we deal with the asteroid by launching all zig for great justice?

[duack 14]

Since the last disastrous asteriod that killed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, there have been 650 ice ages (one every hundred thousand years), so statistically speaking we're several times more likely to have an ice age than to be struck by a huge asteriod.

[Barbarossa 51]

.

  Edited September 8, 2012 by Barbarossa  

[JakeMD 107]

I'm not worried about it, because the chance of it happening are very slim. I trust NASA to monitor these astroids and take action when necessary. After all, they have a plan, right?

[Fresh Prince of Wmbg 44]

Our race has had many near death experineces before, I sure we'll surive somehow.

[simcity4fan12 13]

I am an american of the U.S.A, but I'm not to happy with my government...so I doesn't bother me to talk about it in this way with donating money to NASA:

It seems like the only way for the U.S. government to donate money to NASA for this project is either an asteroid already hit and devasated an area(in the U.S.A) or if NASA discovered an asteroid heading straight toward Washington D.C. That's just my opinion on that.

I'm not to concerned with this, becuase I'll be dead before then(maybe...I'm still young so I'm not sure)...unless life expectancy suddenly rises. Besides, I'm sure in that time something will happen to prevent this. Also...wouldn't astoriods of that size shrink before that time if they even come close to Earth? I'm not a scientist...but I'm just assuming.

[hamsterTK 93]

regardless of this particular issue, I've always felt it was sad how NASA is always starved for funding

[JakeMD 107]

Originally posted by: simcity4fan12

I'm not to concerned with this, becuase I'll be dead before then(maybe...I'm still young so I'm not sure)...unless life expectancy suddenly rises. Besides, I'm sure in that time something will happen to prevent this. Also...wouldn't astoriods of that size shrink before that time if they even come close to Earth? I'm not a scientist...but I'm just assuming.

quote>

Generally they are going far too fast to lose much mass.  And with these, they get so hot that they generally explode miles above the earth.. Increasing their damage. 

[Easy Bakes 253]

They wont need much money to find these things. Just wait till one hits then go collect it.

I dont think  many people realise just how close one of these things could come and not  impact on the surface or enter the atmosphere.Its only a matter of a few hundred miles mabey even less, so when your talking about the vast amount of space is in space chances are slim it will happen soon.then again  no one predicted the recent Jupiter impacts either. Something a mile wide out in the orbit of pluto  could go unspoted for a very long time even if NASA had the money to search for every rock more then 300 feet wide.

Besides it probably going  to be young astronomy students doing the work anyways.

[belfastuniguy 18]

Originally posted by: hamsterTK

regardless of this particular issue, I've always felt it was sad how NASA is always starved for fundingquote>

I agree, I think the budget cutbacks have been absolutely shocking.

[blade2k5 1,523]

Originally posted by: Easy Bakes

They wont need much money to find these things. Just wait till one hits then go collect it.

I dont think  many people realise just how close one of these things could come and not  impact on the surface or enter the atmosphere.Its only a matter of a few hundred miles mabey even less, so when your talking about the vast amount of space is in space chances are slim it will happen soon.then again  no one predicted the recent Jupiter impacts either. Something a mile wide out in the orbit of pluto  could go unspoted for a very long time even if NASA had the money to search for every rock more then 300 feet wide.

Besides it probably going  to be young astronomy students doing the work anyways.quote>

There's also the chance that a rogue asteroid or comet could come in from the direction of Sol and we'd never see it until it was too late.  The odds of Earth getting struck aren't as astronomical as most people think.  Think about it, it happened a 101 years ago in Tunguska  If that space rock had struck a city like NYC or London instead of the remote Tunguska...

[duack 14]

Yeah but how much of the earth's land is as densely populated as NYC or London? It would be worse if it struck the sea because then damage would be more widespread and the sea is 70% of the Earth's surface.

Speaking of Jupiter, you know it actually protects the Earth from many asteriods because it slings them of their flightpath away from the solar system. Or as I like to say, it retards their flightpath.

[JakeMD 107]

Speaking of Jupiter, you know it actually protects the Earth from many asteriods because it slings them of their flightpath away from the solar system. Or as I like to say, it retards their flightpath.

quote>

Or just absorbs them..

The nice thing about earth, is its relatively low gravity compared to other planets. It isn't necessarily going to attract an astroid... The Sun, or Jupiter or the other gas giants are morel likely to absorb it.