The recent meteor explosion over Chelyabinsk, Russia helped bring to light a very real problem. We do not have adequate ways to detect many of the damage causing asteroids impacting the Earth.

Currently, detection and tracking programs exist for objects larger than about a kilometer. It is estimated that about 95 percent of these large objects in orbits crossing that of the Earth have already been detected, and so far none has been found to possibly result in a future impact. Luckily, impacts from these types of large objects, which can cause an end to civilization, are extremely rare, taking place about once every 100,000 to 300,000 years.

Probably more scary are the smaller asteroids. Objects about 50 meters or larger are estimated to hit the Earth about every 100 years, and have the potential to result in significant damage to small local areas. An asteroid of this size could cause very significant damage to an entire city, or if impacting on the ocean, could result in damage to coastal areas through tidal waves. And their small size means that they can easily slip through our current detection techniques. The meteor over Russia last month was one of these (its size is estimated to have been about 60 meters). The explosion over Russia was the first time we had found out about this particular object.

How can we help improve our detection systems so that we know about these events in advance and prepare for them? It turns out that there isn't a great answer yet. The B612 Foundation proposes to build and place a space telescope in solar orbit to help monitor against asteroids as small as 30 meters in diameter (it also turns out that Dr. Ed Lu, a former astronaut involved with the B612 Foundation, spoke to a Senate panel this week about dangers from asteroids). Others have been suggesting that NASA or other government agencies should have a more active role. Amateur astronomers may also be able to help as well by contributing observations with their own telescopes.

What do you think the best ways are to help detect and prepare for asteroid impacts? How should public and private organizations get involved? And how should we deal with a potentially dangerous asteroid once we find one?

by: Abhimat G.

Wednesday Mar-20-2013