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NASA Out of Funds to Track Asteroids

By SETH BORENSTEIN

posted: 4 HOURS 5 MINUTES AGO

comments: 471

filed under: Science News

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WASHINGTON (Aug. 12) — 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.

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.

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NASA /JPL

This is the asteroid 243 Ida as photographed by the Galileo spacecraft in 1993. NASA estimates that there are 20,000 asteroid and comments that are potential threats to Earth. Scientists know the locations of only about 6,000 of them.

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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.

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 and location.

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.

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Amazing Space Images

This image taken by NASA with an infrared telescope in Hawaii shows a large impact on Jupiter's south polar region early Monday. Astronomers say Jupiter was apparently struck by an object, possibly a comet. It happened on the 15th anniversary of another comet strike.

JPL / NASA / AP

But so far NASA has gotten neither sum.

It may never get the money, said John Logsdon, a space policy professor at George Washington University.

"The program is a little bit of a lame duck," Logsdon said. There is not a big enough group pushing for the money, he said.

At the moment, NASA has identified about five near-Earth objects that pose better than a 1-in-a-million risk of hitting Earth and being big enough to cause serious damage, Johnson said. That number changes from time to time, as new asteroids are added and old ones are removed as information is gathered on their orbits.

The space rocks astronomers are keeping a closest eye on are a 430-foot diameter object that has a 1-in-3,000 chance of hitting Earth in 2048 and a much-talked about asteroid, Apophis, which is twice that size and has a one-in-43,000 chance of hitting in 2036, 2037 or 2069.

Last month, NASA started a new Web site for the public to learn about threatening near-Earth objects.

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Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

2009-08-12 19:31:05

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LLJadeRing

08:26 PMAug 14 2009

I say the govenment should just print up more money. More money to baie out the homeless due to the greed of the banks in foreclosuing and stockpiling homes all across america contributing to much harm across the spectrum of life.

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JBJG24M

08:26 PMAug 14 2009

later sixeyes !

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Tmerrimoxie

08:26 PMAug 14 2009

The sky is falling. There are a lot of good programs out there that are running out of funds. A meteors chance of hitting earth 1 in 43,000 sometime over the next 20 to 60 years. The way things are going it might be a welcome sight. There are a lot more crucial things that need to be addressed at this time. NASA will have to learn to cut its budget just like everyone else.

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Alfred schrader

08:25 PMAug 14 2009

JBJLG- You can relax, the world is not going to end soon & certainly not in 2012.Only the Mayan calendar ends in 2012. But, what is going to happen is we are coming into a new era where people will be healthy to 150 years old. How do I know this ? I'm working with Dr. Richard Satava of MIT fame right now on new micro robots that will be able to replace DNA in human cells. Believe it. Al

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PubliusMax

08:25 PMAug 14 2009

"M and M JLRSCVCA 08:18 PMAug 14 2009 fully a fact folks. In December of 2012, an asteroid will come close to the earth and some of the debris following the asteroid will be drawn to earth by earths gravity and the damage will be devistating. The earth may not be destroyed, but there sure will be a big splash and devistation greater than any in the history of the earth. Hundreds of millions will die and not even the self proclaimed messiah Obummer can stop it......... Send up Pelosi in a craft to insult it to destruction just as she has America along with her cronies.."---Does anybody know of a websites that lists all of the idiotic rumors about what's going to cause the December 2012 doomsday event? I've enjoyed reading kookie prophecies ever since those nice people started delivering copies of "Watchtower" to my porch when I was a kid.

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Bansheemarc

08:24 PMAug 14 2009

Alfred schrader 08:16 PMAug 14 2009 Golden Comfort- Um, our solar system is not billions of years old, sorry.And it's still building. I found this by mistake while searching for oil.Nearly all of the oil is about 5,000 feet down. In a relatively short time the earth gained about 2 miles in diameter & moved away from the sun. And this material is still coming in. You can see it on any clear night. Al.___lol. oil is from decaying organic life stuff like trees and animals. if you think trillions of barrels of oil was created in a mere few thousand years your pushing reality.

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Z28boy24

08:23 PMAug 14 2009

"there are 20,000 asteroids and comments that are a potential threat to the earth", what kind of comment could threaten the earth?

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Orbitxal1

08:18 PMAug 14 2009

Took me a while to find something on one of the Earth grazing meteors. It was the Great Daylight Fireball of 1972 in western US and Canada.

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Bansheemarc

08:18 PMAug 14 2009

Aeolianite 08:16 PMAug 14 2009 TradersTraffic08:12 PMAug 14 2009Why find them when there is nothing we can do about them. ***************** And why look for cancerous tumors when there is nothing we can do about them? And why look for electricity when there is nothing we can do about it? And why look for wheels when there is nothing we can do with them? And why look for fire when it has not use?______i think your trying to compare apples to oranges.

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JBJG24M

08:18 PMAug 14 2009

Sixeyess4dinner 08:16 PMAug 14 2009 I saw JBJG24M shooting at something in the night sky with his slingshot. What did he see? He knows something...........-------------------------- damn right and i'm not telling what i saw either!

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