NEOShield - Earth's best defence against possible asteriod impact

[hellheaven1987]

NEOShield is a new international project that will assess the threat posed by Near Earth Objects (NEO) and look at the best possible solutions for dealing with a big asteroid or comet on a collision path with our planet.

The effort is being led from the German space agency's (DLR) Institute of Planetary Research in Berlin, and had its kick-off meeting this week.

It will draw on expertise from across Europe, Russia and the US.

It's a major EU-funded initiative that will pull together all the latest science, initiate a fair few laboratory experiments and new modelling work, and then try to come to some definitive positions.

Industrial partners, which include the German, British and French divisions of the big Astrium space company, will consider the engineering architecture required to deflect one of these bodies out of our path.

Source

So the plot of movie Armageddon is going to be true.

[Chevalier IX]

Source

So the plot of movie Armageddon is going to be true.

it is interesting that NASA keeps insisting that there is not currently any known threats but then these initiatives keep coming through

[John I Tzimisces]

it is interesting that NASA keeps insisting that there is not currently any known threats but then these initiatives keep coming through

Well, it's not exactly unwise, and any astronomer will admit that asteroids generally have low albedo which can make them tricky to spot...but it's not like the movie Armageddon: pretty sure the largest object in the asteroid belt is the size of texas and it's been observed since the 1800s

[Magicman2051]

There aren't any, but that doesn't mean there won't be tomorrow, or in a few decades.

[PointOfViewGun]

There should always be such a program so that it can be improved continuously for the best possible chance against such a scenario.

[Logios]

There seems to be a "practice scenario" already available for the NEO-shield project. The 2011 AG5 asteroid could be passing by quite closely indeed in 2040 with an impact probability of about 1:625 (probably the most pessimistic calculation presented).

Source: http://www.space.com/14683-big-aster...eat-earth.html
They write that more observations will be done in 2013-2016 to establish whether action must be taken before the passage of the "keyhole" in 2023.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Keyholes are small regions in space near Earth through which a passing NEO's orbit may be perturbed due to gravitational effects, possibly placing it onto a path that would impact Earth.

So who should be "Bruce Willis" if it comes to that, are any of you guys ready (I may be too old myself)

[visser300]

Well, it's not exactly unwise, and any astronomer will admit that asteroids generally have low albedo which can make them tricky to spot...but it's not like the movie Armageddon: pretty sure the largest object in the asteroid belt is the size of texas and it's been observed since the 1800s

Well, an asteroid as big as the empire state will wipe out a continent completely. A asteroid as big as Texas state will split this earth into half

[mrmouth]

We have a family friend who now works for the NEO program at the JPL (and before that he actually worked at Area 51), and he routinely says that 10-15 years ago he was worried, and now he isn't. We could still get the cosmic sucker punch, but it is now about as far as you can be on the scale of likely, as possible. They are quite confident that they have charted what they need to in terms of threats to humanity.

And it is also safe to say that the US tends to shy away from these meetings of minds, in any official capacity, because the US could likely have something sensitive that could be used in a situation like deflecting an asteroid or comet. Being tied in with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA likes (or likely has to) keep its card close to its chest.