The UN last week approved an advanced warning and deflection system regarding potentially hazardous NEOs (Near Earth Objects). Included in the plan is an ‘International Asteroid Warning Group’ to divert dangerous space rocks. We’re unsure whether Bruce Willis has yet been contacted.
Following the completely unforeseen meteor explosion over Chelyabinsk in Russia last February, there has been a resurgence in interest over planetary asteroid defense technology, and the latest measures have come as a relief to veteran astronauts and cosmonauts, who have been fretting for years about all the huge rocks they’ve seen up there.
The Association of Space Explorers issued a challenge to the global community last Friday, urging for the ‘next vital steps’ to be taken in order to confront the issue of impactors from space sending us howling back to the Stone Age.
With the current momentum on the subject, these steps may very well be carried out. Measures called for include a space-based telescope to search for the approximately one million NEOs capable of threatening Earth, and impact hazards factored into national disaster plans (in case the telescope has its back turned)