Representatives of the United Nations (U.N) met with the world's best space experts in New York to develop a contingency plan on the asteroid strikes threatening Earth.
News of the asteroid 2013 TV135 hitting Earth by 2036 broke out a week ago. This caused people to worry especially those in Russia who had experienced the impact of an asteroid after a 50-foot wide Asteroid 2012 DA14 hit in Chelyabinsk, Russia in Feb. 15 injuring 1,200 people. The force released by the explosion was measured to be equal to a 300-kiloton bomb.
The asteroid predicted to hit Earth on April 13, 2036 is believed to be 1,300-foot. Dr. Paul Abell of NASA's Johnson Space Center said that the possibility of the asteroid hitting the planet is one out of 48,000 but it seems that the U.N wouldn't want to take a risk.
In a report, the U.N met with six astronauts and cosmonauts on Friday to discuss a contingency plan on asteroid strikes. The conference was held at the American Museum of Natural History and hosted by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson.
The space experts presented that the Earth is at threat of over 1 million asteroids but not all of them were captured by telescopes.
"Our challenge is to find these asteroids first, before they find us," said Edward Lu, a former NASA astronaut and co-founder of the B612 Foundation advocating asteroid defense strategies.
Lu then introduced an infrared telescope that is being developed by his foundation. He called it the "Sentinel Space Telescope" which can detect asteroids even before it comes close to Earth thus allowing the government and space agencies to have enough time to prepare.
The battle plan being proposed is to deploy multiple spacecrafts to deflect an asteroid. Such plans were already being discussed since 2008 but this time, the panel wanted to involve the U.N on their decision-making as it may affect other nations in case the plan goes wrong.
