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Global Effort Needed to Defend Earth from Asteroids, Astronauts Tell UN
Yahoo! News ^ | Laura Poppick - Space.com

Posted on 10/27/2013 4:35:54 PM PDT by NormsRevenge

NEW YORK — Members of the United Nations met with distinguished astronauts and cosmonauts this week in New York to begin implementing the first-ever international contingency plan for defending Earth against catastrophic asteroid strikes.

Six of the space travelers involved in these U.N. discussions discussed the asteroid defense effort Friday (Oct. 25) in a news conference hosted by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson at the American Museum of Natural History. Their goal: to drive home the very-real threats posed by near-Earth objects (NEOs), or asteroids traveling within the radius of Earth's orbit with the sun. You can see a video of the asteroid defense discussion here.

Scientists estimate that there are roughly 1 million near-Earth asteroids that could potentially pose a threat to the planet, but only a small fraction of these have actually been detected by telescopes. There are about 100 times more asteroids lurking in space than have ever been located, said Edward Lu, a former NASA astronaut and co-founder of the non-profit B612 Foundation advocating asteroid defense strategies. "Our challenge is to find these asteroids first, before they find us," Lu said. ..

To help achieve this goal, Lu co-founded an organization called the B612 Foundation in 2002. Today, the group is developing a privately built infrared space telescope — called the Sentinel Space Telescope — with the sole purpose of locating threatening asteroids. The foundation hopes to launch the telescope by 2018.

The Sentinel telescope will help space agencies identify threatening near-Earth objects years before they hit Earth, providing governments and space agencies with enough time to take action, Lu and his colleagues said. Such action would entail deploying a spacecraft — or multiple spacecrafts, depending on the size of the space rock — toward the asteroid in order to smack it off course.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Your Opinion/Questions
KEYWORDS: asteroids; astronauts; catastrophism; defend; earth; unitednations
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Ask yourself.. Do you feeel lucky?
1 posted on 10/27/2013 4:35:54 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
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Looks like a spirograph gone nutso..

This NASA graphic shows the orbits of all the known Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) .. ,p>so far up to over 1,300

2 posted on 10/27/2013 4:38:15 PM PDT by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi)
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To: NormsRevenge

We have about as much chance of doing this as we do of stopping Climate Change and the tides coming and going.


3 posted on 10/27/2013 4:40:54 PM PDT by Venturer (Keep Obama and you aint seen nothing yet.)
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To: NormsRevenge
allow me to volunteer my services in protecting the earth..
4 posted on 10/27/2013 4:44:00 PM PDT by max americana (fired liberals in our company last election, and I laughed while they cried (true story))
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To: NormsRevenge

Oops! Wrong roids!!

5 posted on 10/27/2013 4:47:25 PM PDT by Islander7 (There is no septic system so vile, so filthy, the left won't drink from to further their agenda)
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To: NormsRevenge; All

Have “scientists” decided that they’ve gotten just about all the unconstitutional federal earmarks that they can expect from global warming alarmism and are trying to establish asteroid defense as their next PC excuse for earmarks?

Its too bad that asteroid defense alarmists didn’t see this situation coming before Obama deactivated NASA. But maybe Obama has some unconstitutional stimulus funds left over for unconstitutional NASA.


6 posted on 10/27/2013 4:50:15 PM PDT by Amendment10
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To: NormsRevenge

I was expecting an earth shattering KA BOOM.....!


7 posted on 10/27/2013 5:11:29 PM PDT by njslim (St)
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To: Amendment10

My thoughts exactly!


8 posted on 10/27/2013 5:13:13 PM PDT by workerbee (The President of the United States is DOMESTIC ENEMY #1)
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To: NormsRevenge

If we can’t do something as simple as stop socialism, what makes anyone think we can battle asteroids?


9 posted on 10/27/2013 5:15:08 PM PDT by elkfersupper
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To: Venturer
We have about as much chance of doing this as we do of stopping Climate Change and the tides coming and going.

You are right. I think it is just another scam, to steal money from the American tax payer.

10 posted on 10/27/2013 5:16:08 PM PDT by Mark17 (Chicago Blackhawks: Stanley Cup champions 2010, 2013. Vietnam Veteran, 70-71)
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To: All


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11 posted on 10/27/2013 5:17:15 PM PDT by musicman (Until I see the REAL Long Form Vault BC, he's just "PRES__ENT" Obama = Without "ID")
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To: NormsRevenge

Another backdoor attempt to usurp America’s rights and money.


12 posted on 10/27/2013 5:17:38 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist (Governor Sarah Heath Palin for President of the United States in 2016)
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To: NormsRevenge
That's a 2-dimensional projection of 3-dimensional space.

In three dimensions the orbits are separated by vast distances. The chances of something hitting earth in any given lifetime are practically zero.

13 posted on 10/27/2013 5:20:09 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Who knew that one day professional wrestling would be less fake than professional journalism?)
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To: NormsRevenge

First we had better engage in a global effort to defend Earth from owebama.


14 posted on 10/27/2013 5:24:33 PM PDT by 43north (BHO: 50% black, 50% white, 100% RED)
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To: NormsRevenge

15 posted on 10/27/2013 5:25:55 PM PDT by JoeProBono (SOME IMAGES MAY BE DISTURBING VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED;-{)
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Scientific, Economic Database of Over 600,000 Asteroids- Awesome Visualization Application
Asterank | October 26, 2013 | Ian Webster
Posted on 10/27/2013 4:27:10 PM PDT by lbryce
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3084299/posts


16 posted on 10/27/2013 5:29:46 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (http://www.freerepublic.com/~mestamachine/)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

——That’s a 2-dimensional projection of 3-dimensional space.——

That was my first thought as well ....Glad you pointed that out.... That picture is very misleading...

Also it does not denote the size of the objects.....most if not all would burn up on entering our atmosphere...


17 posted on 10/27/2013 5:30:00 PM PDT by Popman (Liberal wars are about killing people for humanitarian reasons...)
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To: NormsRevenge; lbryce; 75thOVI; agrace; aimhigh; Alice in Wonderland; AndrewC; aragorn; ...

Thanks NormsRevenge.


18 posted on 10/27/2013 5:30:32 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (http://www.freerepublic.com/~mestamachine/)
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To: max americana
You're in charge or asteroid defense, I'll take on alien invaders...
19 posted on 10/27/2013 5:34:49 PM PDT by EEGator
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To: NormsRevenge

God has been throwing rocks at us for 4.7 billion years and nobody has stopped one yet. not a matter of if but when.


20 posted on 10/27/2013 5:39:54 PM PDT by Mike Darancette (Do The Math)
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