Are you concerned about an asteroid hitting Earth? Is the U.N. the proper agency to monitor asteroids???

Question

U.N. Urged to Take On Asteroid Threat
By Irene Klotz
Reuters
SAN FRANCISCO (Feb. 18) - An asteroid may come uncomfortably close to Earth in 2036 and the United Nations should assume responsibility for a space mission to deflect it, a group of astronauts, engineers and scientists said on Saturday.

Astronomers are monitoring an asteroid named Apophis, which has a 1 in 45,000 chance of striking Earth on April 13, 2036.

Although the odds of an impact by this particular asteroid are low, a recent congressional mandate for NASA to upgrade its tracking of near-Earth asteroids is expected to uncover hundreds, if not thousands of threatening space rocks in the near future, former astronaut Rusty Schweickart said.

"It's not just Apophis we're looking at. Every country is at risk. We need a set of general principles to deal with this issue," Schweickart, a member of the Apollo 9 crew that orbited the earth in March 1969, told an American Association for the Advancement of Science conference in San Francisco.

Schweickart plans to present an update next week to the U.N. Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space on plans to develop a blueprint for a global response to an asteroid threat.

The Association of Space Explorers, a group of former astronauts and cosmonauts, intends to host a series of high-level workshops this year to flesh out the plan and will make a formal proposal to the U.N. in 2009, he said.

Schweickart wants to see the United Nations adopt procedures for assessing asteroid threats and deciding if and when to take action.

Answer 1

Ha, sure put the UN in charge. Then we can watch a few decades of corruption; third world dictators will give speeches about how the asteroids were caused by the Americans and the Jews; UN forces will rape and molest underage meteors; some corrupt UN Secretary General will use the program to collect bribes and fake contracts for himself and all his illegitimate children. And, oh yeah, when the Blue Helmeted UN Astronauts finally get into space, they'll turn and flee for their lives when they see the asteroid coming.

Meanwhile, the problem will actually be solved as always by the US, with some help from the Brits or the Australians, amid constant criticism from all corners. Just another UN project.

Answer 2

I'll answer your second question first: The only organization on earth at present capable of dealing with an earth-asteroid collision is the United States of America. Working through the UN is just a nice way to keep everyone else involved so their feelings don't get hurt. Sorry if this offends anyone, but look at the UN's record of getting anything done without US support. The former USSR put the first rocket into earth orbit for a few days, but since then, who has put the only men on the moon, placed the only working rovers on Mars, put up the Hubble telescope, and sent the only vehicle completely out of the solar system?

Regarding your first question: Am I concerned, although I would say that although I don't spend much time worrying about it. I am glad that our government funds research to track potential collision asteroids and is considering plans to divert a future collision. The consequences of a collision are so devastating, and the difficulties of diverting an asteroid so challenging, that even the most remote possibility should be addressed. Ten, twenty or even fifty years notice of such an event would by no means insure our success in diverting it. The energies involved are immense, even when compared with our atomic arsenal.

Bottom line: don't lose any sleep over this, but be thankful that we have some chance of doing something about it.

Answer 3

Several larger asteroid impacts could potentially move the moon very slightly in it's orbit, although there are no objects large enough to move the moon so far out of it's current path that it would crash into the earth in anything less than several hundred million years. The moon is currently moving away at a rate of just under 4cm every year (1.5in), the very most an asteroid could possibly do would be to reduce that rate by the smallest margin. Also, if the moon did collide with the earth, the earth would bend and flex towards the moon, land would probably split and crack, the tides would go out of control, things would go crazy, but no, the world would not resemble the avatar world in any way - the moon doesn't produce enough gravity to counteract the gravity of the earth. The moon also has relatively minimal magnetic presence, so it wouldn't affect the earth's magnetic field. Changes in gravity would affect tidal activity and air density, which would in turn have massive impacts on the weather, but the magnetic field would remain intact. Basically - world is cracking and splitting on the surface, the tide is rising and falling a huge amount (as in, hundreds of meters). Nothing is flying or floating as the moon's gravity is not sufficient to overcome the earth's, but the weather is DIFFERENT because of a change in climate (not necessarily firestorms, just things like snow in a desert).

Answer 4

Doesn't make any sense for the UN to do it, the US would foot the bill anyway so we might as well have a say as to how we spend our own money. The odds are low, not many impacts in recorded history of the past 7500 years. Probably have been some decent hits, like the siberian incident in the early 1900's. But nothing really big, so it would seem our odds are in our favor, not in an asteroid's. We are much better off now than even fifty years ago--if we had seen an asteroid on collision course, we could have done nothing. At least today, we are much much safer becuase we have the potential technology to deflect an asteroid, not just lay down and wait for the end.
Funny how our society is so negative; in the case of asteroids we should be much more positive about preventing a hit now and not worrying about getting hit.

Answer 5

Firstly, there aren't nearly enough people looking for these sort of problems.

It's not something I worry about, but it is statisticly inevetable. We should be prepared for something so threatening to happen, since we know it can and will happen, sooner or later.

Over-all, it's a good thing this near miss has rattled people a little. Maybe we'll take take this subject, that could potentialy mean the end of human life, as seriously as we take Terrorism.

Right now, who's looking and who's going to do something are irrelevant questions. Until there is an international agency framework in place to handle this sort of thing. Any dangers that would need to be handled before such a framework was in place would be an eminent and immediate one and would probably require an international ad-hock solution.

In the end, yes, it is a responsability that I think does fall within the responsabilitys of the UN and the affore mentioned agency would be under the UN umbrella.

This is something that needs to be taken seriously. It has only been just now suggested and already people are politicking, complaining about the UN, whining about who's going to pay for it, and worrying about who gets the glory.

F***ing sad.

Answer 6

I am concerned but not overly so; despite today's technology hitting such an asteroid with nukes is still like a batter facing a pitcher, so even if we try it may not work, so no reason to get our hopes up - besides, it most likely will be too far away to hurt us when it does come. But I believe that the U.N. should be the arbiter as most of the world hates the U.S. too much to listen right now, which is ironic if you consider the concentration of knowledge and years of experience NASA has. But being the perpetual cynic when it comes to politics and world opinion I know that we will wind up paying for it - after all, the world has gotten used to us bailing them out, even though they bite our hand and plot on destroying us whenever we do so.

Answer 7

The UN is not a suitable vehicle for this sort of thing; on evidence, the UN could not break out of a cardboard box on a rainy day. NASA, in cooperation with the European Space Research Organization and other agencies, is quite capable of monitoring things, and in any case, the odds are too low to be worth much attention.

Answer 8

all nearest coming asteroids and undiscovered tail rocks in 1911, 13, 22, 29 and 36 maybe miss earth. Look at moon face, can tell they seem like to hit there than here.

Answer 9

Yes i have heard That But i also heard something Else there is a Asteroid coming from outer space and it is Huge.. if it hits us all life would seize to exist . but not too worry it will take about 120 years to reach us!!

Answer 10

The UN isn't monitoring it, they'll just decide who has to take action. Probably us, since we have more stuff to launch into space than any other country. Astronomers all over the world have been monitoring for asteriods for dozens of years.