In recently passed H.R.6063, The U.S. House of Representatives would direct the NASA Administrator to develop plans for a low-cost space mission to rendezvous with the Apophis asteroid and attach a tracking device.
As if forecasting whether asteroids will hit the Earth wasn't hard enough, it now seems that primordial black holes could surprise us by nudging a rock or two our way.
By the end of this year, NASA hopes to find about 90% of the largest asteroids that could potentially strike Earth, a blast that could throw dust into the atmosphere and cause firestorms and acid rain. These asteroids can be as large as mountains but are at least 1 kilometer (3,280.8 feet) in diameter. NASA estimates that 900 of these objects are in potentially hazardous range of Earth.
Last week two events in Washington - a conference on "planetary defense" held by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and the release by NASA of a report titled "Near-Earth Object Survey and Deflection Analysis of Alternatives" - gave us good news and bad on this front. On the promising side, scientists have a good grasp of the risks of a cosmic fender-bender, and have several ideas that could potentially stave off disaster. Unfortunately, the government doesn't seem to have any plan to put this expertise into action.
NASA officials say the space agency is capable of finding nearly all the asteroids that might pose a devastating hit to Earth, but there isn't enough money to pay for the task so it won't get done.
A NASA-led search for Earth-threatening asteroids as small as 140 metres has been approved by the US Congress and is awaiting President George W Bush's signature. The bill provides no money, but survey telescopes are already in development.
A cadre of space scientists is becoming more adept at sorting out the swarm of asteroids and comets floating through the solar system and has turned its attention to the more-daunting job of doing something about the potentially disastrous collision with Earth.
A panel of experts working at NASA's request has recommended a bold new search for potentially dangerous asteroids, including smaller objects that could cause regional damage in an Earth impact.
Russian astronomers express concern over Russia's aged space tracking network and their inability to detect and track small asteroids.
Leon Jaroff argues that more attention should be paid to small asteroid as they could be mistaken for a nuclear attack.