House Science Committee Hearing: 'THREATS FROM SPACE' !! Track & Mitigate ASTEROIDS & METEORS

[SamuelB]

A review of U.S. government efforts to track and mitigate asteroids and meteors. (01:47:12)

Testimony from Dr. John Holdren, Gen. William Shelton and Gen. Charles F. Bolden.

In the wake of last month's meteor strike in Russia and a close asteroid flyby on the same day, members of Congress asked White House, Air Force and NASA officials what they're doing to combat the threat of near-Earth asteroids during a hearing on March 19th. By and large, the experts stressed that the two space rock events were a coincidence and that the chance of a catastrophic asteroid impact to Earth any time soon is remote. On Feb. 15, a surprise meteor exploded in the sky over Russia's Ural Mountains, just hours before the 150-foot-wide (40 meters) asteroid 2012 DA14 flew close by Earth in a pass that had been predicted beforehand by scientists.

See also:

Asteroid heading for New York? You better pray, NASA chief tells US Congress (00:02:23)

"What would we do if you detected even a small one ... headed toward New York City in three weeks? What would we do? Bend over and what?'' said Posey to laughter.

Replied NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden: "If it's coming in three weeks, pray.''

[longship]

1. Or, we could fund a program to find these bad boys.

It wouldn't even be that expensive, as US budget items go. But it would also benefit STEM education which always pays back more than is invested.

It wouldn't even take a big telescope to do this. Many smaller ones would do the trick. Or, one space-bound one dedicated to the task.

As SciFi author Larry Niven observed, the reason why the dinosaurs went extinct is because they never developed a space program. Humans do have one. Knowing what we know, how can we not do this?

[Katashi_itto]

2. Republicans could always pass a law stating asteroids don't exist.