Asteroid Threat Not Top Priority at NASA

NASA announced recently that it will cut the funding for its Near Earth Object mapping program. In 2004 scientists at NASA found Apophis, an asteroid that may or may not slam into the Earth in the year 2036. While current predictions have Apophis missing the earth by about 10,000 miles or so, there is an exceedingly small chance that Apophis will slip into a tiny perturbation in the earths gravity only 2000 meters wide which may cause Apophis to enter into an orbit that terminates on the surface of the earth in 2036. Scientists at NASA expect such an event would cause a serious ruckus, but are so far adopting a wait and see attitude. If the asteroid still poses a serious threat by 2014, then they'll start worrying. (www.space.com)

While there's only a small chance that we'll win the celestial lottery,and have a huge chunk of iron and steel careening unstoppably into the thin crust of the earth, shattering our lives in the way that only mother nature can, I for one am willing to roll the dice. For you see the odds are in our favor, 1 in 45,000.

Scientists at the Imperial College London and the Russian Academy of Sciences have recently conducted a computer simulation experiment to asses the threat of asteroid impact. They found that asteroids do not hit the earth as often as previously thought, so we should expect an asteroid every 160,000 years, down from 2,500 years or so. On top of that they also discovered that the atmosphere of the Earth provides more protection from asteroids than previously thought. As small asteroids collide with the atmosphere they shatter into pieces, posing a lesser threat to human beings in their bullet size capacities. The researchers still concede that it would be very bad to be hit by an asteroid however.

Last month a group of scientists and former astronauts warned the UN about the potential danger of the asteroid Apophis, and laid out a plan to deflect it that would cost $300 million dollars. No word yet on whether or not the UN will take any action. (www.rueters.com)

"While the chance of an asteroid hitting earth is unlikely it's still not impossible. The only way to be certain of no asteroid impacts is to keep looking", says Richard Binzel, a professor at M.I.T. I (www.Scienceagogo.com)

Although our National Aeronautics and Space Administration is not feeling very threatened by the threat of asteroid impact, our allies across the sea are. The UK announced in February that it will be taking the lead role in protecting the earth from world ending NEO's. Lord Sainsbury, Britain's science minister, has devised measures to deal with the problem but the exact amount of funding given to the initiative remains unclear. He has also called on the European Space Agency to take it all very seriously. (news.bbc.co.uk)

Although the United States is the only nation with an asteroid tracking program, it hasn't been able to get any money for it. Even modest proposals of $300 million dollars have been rejected by the congress. In 2005 congress asked NASA to come up with a plan to detect and deflect NEO's. NASA is set to release the full report this month, but there will be little for them to do with it. (www.space.com)