Last Friday in New York there was a meeting between members of the UN and a group of astronauts and cosmonauts with the purpose of discussing the possibility of defending the Earth from the impact of an asteroid. A conference on the subject was held at the American Museum of Natural History, where the famous science advocate Neil deGrasse Tyson hosted six astronauts.

The consequences of the explosion of the meteorite with a diameter estimated at about 20 meters above the city of Chelyabinsk, in Russia, on February 12, 2013, left quite an impression. That’s not surprising given that the total energy was estimated around 20-30 times the atomic bomb used on Hiroshima.

This type of threat had already been taken seriously and in 2002 astrophysicist Piet Hut and astronaut and physicist Ed Lu created the B612 Foundation precisely to find a way to alter the orbit of an asteroid if it turns out that it’s on a collision course with Earth. Ed Lu was one of the astronauts who spoke at the UN.

This year, ESA launched the NEO-CC, NEO (Near Earth Object) coordination center in Frascati, near Rome, Italy, a coordination hub of the network of information on NEOs, objects such as asteroids and comets whose orbits pass close to Earth. NASA announced a plan to identify all the asteroids that could pose a danger to Earth.

NASA has also proposed a few missions to send probes to closely study the asteroids and even catch one to take close to the Earth in an orbit when it can do no harm. For the moment those are only theoretical projects, on a practical level NASA announced that it would reactivate the WISE Space Telescope to find asteroids.

Now the UN has been involved, demonstrating that the threat is taken seriously on a global level. For now, it was decided to create an international group called “International Asteroid Warning Group” in order to allow the various nations to share information on asteroids and comets that could pose a threat. In case of danger, the United Nations Commission on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space will be responsible for coordinating international efforts to plan a defense.

It’s possible that there’s one million objects of the NEO type. In the past, the probability that a meteorite hit a populated area were much lower, now with a population of over 7 billion people the chances are much greater. It’s best to think about it now, even with the possibility of finding a way to exploit the asteroids for minerals they contain, rather than waiting for them to fall on our heads.

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