Oct 25, 2022
NASA proved it can deflect an asteroid. But spotting them is tricky
Posted by Genevieve Klien in categories: asteroid/comet impacts, existential risks
The bad news is NASA estimates that it tracks only about 40 percent of the asteroids large enough that they could cause calamity if they were to hit Earth. To save us, the space agency needs fair warning — years, not months or weeks — to muster the defenses in space needed to safeguard the planet.
“As we say, we can’t do anything about them unless we know about them, and when they might be a concern for us,” Lindley Johnson, NASA’s Planetary Defense Officer, said in an interview.