NASA admits helplessness against meteors

During a meeting of the US House of Commons and Space Committee for Science, Space and Technology took place four days after the meteorite incident in Russia, officials from the US Aerospace Agency (NASA) admitted that nothing could be done. If the meteorite on the collision with the Earth within 3 weeks.

On February 15, a meteorite exploded in the sky of the Russian city of Chelyabinsk, creating shock waves that broke numerous glass doors and injured about 1,500 people. On the same day, 2012 meteorite DA14 also moved close to the Earth, only 27,700km away from our planet's surface, closer to some of the world's telecommunications satellites.

After these incidents, the US House and Space Science and Technology Committee met during a hearing held on March 19. At the hearing entitled 'Space threats: Evaluating the US government's efforts to monitor and minimize asteroids and asteroids' , US scientists and lawmakers have discuss the risk as well as the defense strategy against a previously unspecified asteroid or asteroids that are on a collision course with the Earth.

Many videos and photos recorded the meteorite scene
exploded in the Russian sky on February 15th. (Photo: EarthSky)

Although still trying to emphasize the need for adequate investment to detect and identify near-Earth objects and divert them if necessary, NASA leader Charles Bolden declared: 'From these information in hand, we do not know any meteorite will threaten the US population. But if it comes within 3 weeks . pray. '

Bolden's statement alludes, unless we know in advance that a meteorite is about to rush and thus have time to redirect it, almost nothing we can do about a meteorite on impact with Earth. Bolden added that the reason for this impotence is that for decades, Americans have not focused on early detection to deal with asteroids or asteroids that threaten to attack Earth.

NASA is currently tracking about 95% of adjacent Earth objects (NEO) with a diameter of nearly 1km or more. White House scientific adviser John Holdren warned, a meteorite of such size could completely end a civilization of humanity.

So far, no object in NASA's sights has proved to be a direct threat. However, the House of Representatives Committee for Science, Space and Technology Committee pointed out that Russia's 'terrorist' meteorite was also estimated to be only 17 meters wide and was not followed before. . With smaller sizes, meteorites or asteroids are more difficult to detect but they can still be deadly.

All asteroids and asteroids within a third of the distance from the Earth to the Sun are mapped to mid-February (in which the Earth is circled). (Photo: EarthSky)

According to adviser John Holdren, the best way to detect objects that are likely to collide with the Earth is to put an infrared induction telescope into a Venus-like orbit. Mr. Holdren estimates that the cost of such a telescope is about US $ 500-750 million.

A costly and time-consuming task will increase the burden on the mission to divert an object that threatens Earth after scientists discover it. The hunt for NASA's dangerous asteroids and asteroids is expected to be affected by the federal government's spending cuts. And at the current level of investment, NASA estimates the agency will take nearly 20 years to identify all NEO objects capable of threatening the Earth.

One solution that all US lawmakers seem to agree is to cooperate with other countries as well as amateur astronomers to create powerful resources and hunt down meteorites and asteroids. Potential danger to Earth.