If the sky is falling but nobody is watching.. does it make a sound?

[ddeclue]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/space/08/13/nasa.asteroid.detection/index.html


Without more funding, NASA will not meet its goal of tracking 90 percent of all deadly asteroids by 2020, according to a report released today by the National Academy of Sciences.


This NASA artist's rendering shows a massive asteroid belt orbiting the Earth.

The agency is on track to soon be able to spot 90 percent of the potentially dangerous objects that are at least a kilometer (.6 miles) wide, a goal previously mandated by Congress.

Asteroids of this size are estimated to strike Earth once every 500,000 years on average and could be capable of causing a global catastrophe if they hit Earth. In 2008, NASA's Near Earth Object Program spotted a total of 11,323 objects of all sizes.

But without more money in the budget, NASA won't be able to keep up with a 2005 directive to track 90 percent of objects bigger than 460 feet across. An impact from an asteroid of this size could cause significant damage and be very deadly, particularly if it were to strike near a populated area.

Meeting that goal "may require the building of one or more additional observatories, possibly including a space-based observatory," according to the report.

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[AntiFascist]

1. Maybe this is why NASA can't get any funding....

the asteroid belt orbits the Sun, not the Earth...still deadly nonetheless.