NASA Cannot keep up with Killer Asteroids?

Study finds that NASA can't meet its goal of spotting nearly all Earth-threatening asteroids Report: NASA Can't Keep up With Killer Asteroids http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Space/wireStory?id=8312087 The Associated Press Font Size NASA is charged with spotting most of the asteroids that pose a threat to Earth but doesn't have the money to complete the job, a federal report says. A scene from the film, Armageddon, shows an asteroid about to hit New York City. Disaster movies... A scene from the film, Armageddon, shows an asteroid about to hit New York City. Disaster movies like "Armageddon" and near asteroid misses in previous years may have scared people and alerted them to a serious issue. But when it comes to doing something about monitoring the threat, the academy concluded "there has been relatively little effort by the U.S. government." (Sipa) More Photos That's because even though Congress assigned the space agency that mission four years ago, it never gave NASA the money to build the necessary telescopes, according to the report released Wednesday by the National Academy of Sciences. Specifically, the mission calls for NASA, by the year 2020, to locate 90 percent of the potentially deadly rocks hurtling through space. The agency says it's been able to complete about one-third of its assignment with the current telescope system. NASA estimates that there are about 20,000 asteroids and comets in our solar system that are potential threats. They are larger than 460 feet in diameter — slightly smaller than the Superdome in New Orleans. So far, scientists know where about 6,000 of these objects are. Related Asteroid Strike: Who Will Protect You? U.N. Urged to Lead Killer Asteroid Plans How Did They Catch a Shooting Star? Rocks between 460 feet and 3,280 feet in diameter can devastate an entire region, said Lindley Johnson, NASA's manager of the near-Earth objects program. Objects bigger than that are even more threatening, of course. Just last month astronomers were surprised when an object of unknown size and origin bashed into Jupiter and created an Earth-sized bruise that is still spreading. Jupiter does get slammed more often than Earth because of its immense gravity, enormous size. Disaster movies like "Armageddon" and near misses in previous years may have scared people and alerted them to the threat. But when it comes to monitoring, the academy concluded "there has been relatively little effort by the U.S. government." And the United States is practically the only government doing anything at all, the report found. "It shows we have a problem we're not addressing," said Louis Friedman, executive director of the Planetary Society, an advocacy group. NASA calculated that to spot the asteroids as required by law would mean spending about $800 million between now and 2020, either with a new ground-based telescope or a space observation system, Johnson said. If NASA got only $300 million it could find most asteroids bigger than 1,000 feet across, he said. Print RSS E-mail Share this story with friends Facebook Reddit Twitter StumbleUpon More 1 | 2 3 comments NEXT > Read 3 Comments and Post Your Own