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Billions needed for asteroid defense?

If scientists detected a major asteroid headed for Earth now, it would take at least five years and billions of dollars to develop an effective defense system to either alter its course or destroy it, scientists say.

 

Laser Defense From Asteroids

Asteroid

Could a “Deathstar” someday defend Earth against incoming threats from space? Last Friday, asteroid 2012 DA14 -- half a football field long and weighing about 190,000 tons -- missed plane Earth in a fly-by. Far smaller and therefore harder to detect was the 50 foot long asteroid that injured more than 1,000 Russians when it stuck a few hours earlier.

 

Watch an asteroid buzz past us ... online

Asteroid

Science editor Alan Boyle's blog: The best way for most of us to watch asteroid 2012 DA14 come within 17,200 miles of Earth, and then recede harmlessly into the cosmos, is to watch the show online.

 

150-foot asteroid will buzz Earth, no need to duck

A 150-foot-wide asteroid will come remarkably close to Earth next week, even closer than high-flying communication and weather satellites. It will be the nearest known flyby for an object of this size....

 

Earth-like planets just got closer

Red Dwarf

Researchers find that 6% of red dwarf stars host habitable, Earth-sized planets - meaning the closest may be just 13 light-years away.

 

Earth safe from asteroid's close flyby next week

Asteroid

An asteroid will give Earth a historically close shave next week, but there's no chance that the space rock will slam into our planet on this pass, experts say.

 

Whew! Big asteroid no longer threat to Earth

Armageddon

Upon further review, a big scary-sounding asteroid is no longer even a remote threat to smash into Earth in about 20 years, NASA says....

 

Huge asteroid set to buzz Earth

A giant asteroid will make a flyby of Earth over the next few days, and armchair astronomers can watch the action live on their computers.

 

Save the Earth: Hit asteroid with spaceship

It sounds like the plot of a bad Bruce Willis movie, but some experts are saying it should be a reality. In order to prepare for massive asteroids that could aim for Earth in the future, researchers should ram a spaceship into a real asteroid to see if the space rock would shift course, scientists say.

 

Warmer still: Extreme climate predictions appear most accurate, study says

Climate Change

Climate scientists agree the Earth will be hotter by the end of the century, but their simulations don’t agree on how much. Now a new study suggests the gloomier predictions may be closer to the mark.

 

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