UN to establish asteroid warning and defense plans
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.027456
Scientific American : The United Nations General Assembly has passed a plan to create an asteroid warning system for member nations. The decision was made upon the recommendation of former astronaut Ed Lu and the Association of Space Explorers (ASE) following the Chelyabinsk meteor strike. That meteor went undetected as it approached Earth and struck without warning. Despite efforts to map asteroids in the solar system, there are perhaps 100 times as many as we think, and a million of them are large enough to destroy New York City, said Lu. In the event that an asteroid is detected that poses a threat to Earth, the UN proposes to help fund the launch of a spacecraft to try and divert it away from the planet. Currently, no government agency is explicitly responsible for asteroid defense.
