An asteroid impact is a threat that humanity should not underestimate . For this reason , NASA , several federal agencies , and international organizations are taking part ina tabletop exerciseon preparedness during the Planetary Defense Conference materialize this calendar week in Washington .
NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine kick in the opening keynote talking , encouraging masses to take the peril from impacts in earnest . Bridenstine used the example of the recentChelyabinsk Event , when a 20 - beat ( 66 - animal foot ) near - Earth objective ( NEO ) inscribe the atmosphere and exploded over Chelyabinsk Oblast . This create an telling shockwave that damaged over 7,200 buildings , which in turn direct to the hospitalisation of 1,491 people .
“ I wish I could tell you these events are exceptionally unequaled … but they ’re not , ” Bridenstein said during his keynote . “ We have to check that that people understand that this is not about Hollywood , it ’s not about the movies . This is about ultimately protecting the only satellite we recognize , right now , to host life history and that is the planet ground . ”
The NASA chief also talked about the scientific and technological challenges we are yet to assemble when it come to the possible dangers . Last yr , a multi - agency report called " The National Near - Earth Object Preparedness Strategy and Action Plan ” detailed what was required of NASA when it comes to NEOs .
“ We ’re only about a third of the elbow room there and the natural law that has been passed says that NASA is demand to be able to detect , track , and characterize not just one - third but 90 percentage of them , ” Bridenstine explained , “ which means we have to use our organisation , expend our capabilities , to ultimately get a lot more data , and we have to do it faster . We want more international married person that can join us in this effort . We want more system on the typeface of the Earth that can discover and track these object . ”
But to characterise objects as small as the Chelyabinsk superbolide , we need a space observatory . NASA has studied such a mission : theNear Earth Object Camera ( NEOCam ) . It was a finalist in the most late competition for the Discovery - category world-wide science mission , but it was not choose in the end . A turgid portion of NASA ’s current budget for world-wide defense has been spent on the Double Asteroid Redirection Test ( DART ) , which will set up in 2021 . This entail soon there should be funding available for NEOCam , dramatically flesh out the know space rock candy around our major planet .
It has been estimated that roughly50 percent of all NEOslarger than 140 meters ( 460 feet ) but smaller than 1 kilometer ( 0.6 miles ) have been discovered so far . If one of these were to bear upon , it could work devastation on a continent - wide plate .
[ H / T : Space News ]
