White House Adviser: US Must Prepare for Asteroid

In separate 10-page letters to the House Committee on Science and Technology and the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, John Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, or OSTP, outlines plans for "(A) protecting the United States from a near-Earth object that is expected to collide with Earth; and (B) implementing a deflection campaign, in consultation with international bodies, should one be necessary."

While Holdren indicates that no large asteroid or comet presents an immediate hazard to our planet, the fact that devastating impacts have occurred on Earth in the distant past is enough to warrant safety precautions for the future...

Asteroids are rocky bodies found within the inner solar system, originating in an area known as the asteroid belt, located between the planets Mars and Jupiter.

If a large asteroid were to strike Earth, it could cause a global climate change, which many scientists believe is what caused the extinction of the dinosaurs more than 60 million years ago -- not a good prospect for life on Earth in the present day if a similar event occurred.

NASA's Near Earth Object program, or NEO, looks for and monitors asteroids that are at least a kilometer in diameter... After 12 years of cosmic hunting, NASA search teams have determined that 149 NEOs larger than a kilometer in size are in orbits that might pose a problem for Earth, but none is considered an impact threat in the next 100 years...

John Holdren keyword, chrono sort:

this is the most non partisan of issues and will be a long term threat. I hope whomever occupies the WH going forward will be working on this.

To: gleeaikin; 75thOVI; aimhigh; Alice in Wonderland; AndrewC; aragorn; aristotleman; Avoiding_Sulla; ..

Thanks gleeaikin. I put those links to the rest of the topics about John Holdren in the interests of full disclosure. He didn’t originate the idea that we need to protect ourselves against the impact hazard, but regardless, it is true.

3 posted on 10/26/2010 7:39:11 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (The 2nd Amendment follows right behind the 1st because some people are hard of hearing.)

Prepare for Asteroid

Lyndon Johnson had them so bad he couldn't drive a car.

4 posted on 10/26/2010 7:39:16 PM PDT by kbennkc (For those who have fought for it freedom has a flavor the protected will never know .F Trp 8th Cav)

Not a problem:

I have it under control.

5 posted on 10/26/2010 7:39:16 PM PDT by SkyDancer ("If You Don't Read The News You're Uniformed, If You Do Read The News You're Misinformed")

Why do I get the feeling that Rod Serling is lurking in the bushes?

7 posted on 10/26/2010 7:39:30 PM PDT by hosepipe (This propaganda has been edited to include some fully orbed hyperbole....)

And of course, to a group of Marxist at the helm of country, the very best defense against an asteroid pummeling the earth is: higher taxes.

“If a large asteroid were to strike Earth, it could cause a global climate change”

LOL!

If you have the ability to deflect an asteroid away from an Earth collision, you have the power to aim one at Earth.

I’m OK with that as long as I’m the one in charge of that capability.

Who would you give that power to?

Being prepared isn’t a bad idea but the bunch of clowns running the show now would be hard pressed to tie their shoes.

11 posted on 10/26/2010 7:43:09 PM PDT by cripplecreek (Remember the River Raisin! (look it up))

Get these guys to 'redirect' the asteroids. (The Asteroid Czar can just send me a check.)

Wait a minute, isn’t NASA in charge of mooosluums now?

That reference makes me want to open up the BluRay of the original “Planet of the Apes”.

14 posted on 10/26/2010 7:45:55 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (The 2nd Amendment follows right behind the 1st because some people are hard of hearing.)

“White House Adviser: US Must Prepare for Asteroid”

At the rate this White House and it’s Advisers and Czars are going, an asteroid strike just might improve things.

I wholeheartedly agree. After the SL-9 impacts on Jupiter, 16 years ago, a bunch of former Soviet and present US cold warriors held a conference to discuss the prospects of using nukes to deflect hazardous asteroids.

16 posted on 10/26/2010 7:47:42 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (The 2nd Amendment follows right behind the 1st because some people are hard of hearing.)

If there’s nothing slated for 100 years and you are 13 trillion in debt its best to do nothing.

This is the real reason we need manned space flight. Asteroids have annihilated plenty of species on earth.

That was the reason that was given — he couldn’t be trusted behind the wheel of a car because he drank even more than Ted Kennedy.

19 posted on 10/26/2010 7:48:25 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (The 2nd Amendment follows right behind the 1st because some people are hard of hearing.)

If the asteroid is headed for Washington DC, leave it alone!

20 posted on 10/26/2010 7:48:32 PM PDT by DTogo (High time to bring back the Sons of Liberty !!)

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