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UN is told that Earth needs an asteroid shield
Robin McKie,
London
Observer
Monday, Dec 08, 2008
A group of the world's leading scientists has urged
the United Nations to establish an international network to search
the skies for asteroids on a collision course with Earth. The
spaceguard system would also be responsible for deploying spacecraft
that could destroy or deflect incoming objects.
The group - which includes the Royal Society president Lord Rees
and environmentalist Crispin Tickell - said that the UN needed
to act as a matter of urgency. Although an asteroid collision
with the planet is a relatively remote risk, the consequences
of a strike would be devastating.
An asteroid that struck the Earth 65 million years ago wiped
out the dinosaurs and 70 per cent of the species then living on
the planet. The destruction of the Tunguska region of Siberia
in 1908 is known to have been caused by the impact of a large
extraterrestrial object.
(ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW)
'The international community must begin work now on forging three
impact prevention elements - warning, deflection technology and
a decision-making process - into an effective defence against
a future collision,' said the International Panel on Asteroid
Threat Mitigation, which is chaired by former American astronaut
Russell Schweickart. The panel made its presentation at the UN's
building in Vienna.
The risk of a significantly sized asteroid - defined by the panel
as being more than 45 metres in diameter - striking the Earth
has been calculated at two or three such events every 1,000 years,
a rare occurrence, though such a collision would dwarf all other
natural disasters in recent history.
The panel added that developments in telescope design mean that,
by 2020, it should be possible to pinpoint about 500,000 asteroids
in orbit round the Sun and study their movements. Of these, several
dozen will be revealed to pose threats to Earth, the panel added.
Full
article here
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INFOWARS:
BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND
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