1/7/2024 0 Comments Asteroids extreme sizeEarly detection could also help minimize damage from an impact that couldn’t be avoided by giving sufficient warning for people to be evacuated from a given area. Multiple asteroid deflection mechanisms have been designed and, according to advocates, could be carried out with components of existing technology, 1 suggesting that a focus on asteroid detection is appropriate.Unlike other GCRs (e.g., nuclear war), asteroid risk is extremely quantifiable: scientists have estimated the number and size of near-earth asteroids and are able to track how many have been discovered.The potential catastrophe from such an impact is so great that an investment in asteroid detection could conceptually have high returns. it could conceivably endanger the survival of humanity). Asteroid impact is a possible global catastrophic risk (i.e.Congress is not expected to be met, the issue appears to remain on the agenda of NASA and Congress to some extent. Who else is working on it?Īlthough the most recent asteroid tracking goal set by the U.S. Philanthropic funds could also potentially also be used to lobby a government to fund such a satellite, instead of funding it directly. The B612 Foundation is currently raising funds to attempt to design and launch such a space-based telescope, which would be the first ever deep-space satellite launched by a private group. ![]() To substantially reduce residual risk from asteroid strikes, we would need better detection technology – a new telescope – followed, in the unlikely event of detecting a hazard, by action to divert it or minimize humanitarian damage. A 2010 National Research Council report, the most authoritative we’re aware of, estimated remaining actuarial risk due to asteroid strikes equivalent to less than 100 fatalities a year. NASA reports that all of the near-earth asteroids as large as the one believed to have killed the dinosaurs have been detected, and substantial progress has been made in detecting other dangerously large asteroids. This is a writeup of a shallow investigation, a brief look at an area that we use to decide how to prioritize further research.Īsteroids occasionally hit Earth, and a sufficiently large asteroid could cause enormous humanitarian damage.
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