NASA asked people to hunt for killer meteors

Yesterday, June 18, the US Aeronautics Agency (NASA) announced the Great Challenge initiative, calling on state agencies, organizations, academies and even ordinary people to join the hunt. Potentially life-threatening meteors on Earth.

According to AFP, NASA said the initiative will challenge the project to use robots to push meteorites into orbit into the moon so astronauts can fly up meteorites and study.

NASA's radar image shows the 1998 QE2 meteorite when it is 6 million kilometers from Earth - (Photo: Reuters)

'NASA is currently searching for meteors that might threaten Earth. We found 95% of large meteorites close to Earth's orbit, but we need to find all the meteorites that might threaten the Earth, ' said NASA deputy director Lori Garver.

'The biggest challenge is finding and evaluating meteorites to find ways to deal with risk,' Garver said. 'We want to mobilize public support to address this global problem.'

Mr. Tom Kalil, deputy director of the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy, also affirmed that hunting killer meteors was a common effort of everyone.'Efforts by the private sector and civilian scientists will help NASA improve its ability to detect objects near the Earth,' Kalil said.

Currently NASA has found that 95% of meteorites with a diameter of at least 1km, are likely to cause catastrophe if they crash into Earth. But NASA also said in the near future, the risk from meteorites is not large.