Originally published Saturday, July 5, 2008 at 12:00 AM
Scientists warn U.S. unprepared if asteroid strikes
A group of scientists, joined by a member of Congress, used the 100th anniversary of the Tunguska asteroid event this week to draw attention...
Los Angeles Times
A group of scientists, joined by a member of Congress, used the 100th anniversary of the Tunguska asteroid event this week to draw attention to their belief that the United States is not doing enough to defend the planet against the dangers posed by near-Earth objects.
"We are not prepared at this time to prevent the massive death and destruction that would occur if an object from space hit the Earth as it did in Tunguska," Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., said at a news conference at the Pasadena, Calif., offices of the Planetary Society.
If an asteroid the size of the one believed to have exploded above Tunguska, Siberia, were to explode over Los Angeles, he said, the destruction would range over much of Southern California.
Although no one is positive what caused the Tunguska event, which flattened trees over an 800-square-mile area on June 30, 1908, most scientists think an asteroid about 150 feet across exploded above the remote river valley in Russia. No one was killed.
NASA has established a Near-Earth Object Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena to monitor potentially dangerous asteroids. The most scrutinized is Apophis, which has about a 1-in-45,000 chance of hitting Earth in 2036, according to Don Yeomans, manager of the office. Apophis is about five times the suspected size of the Tunguska object.
Alan Harris, a senior research scientist at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo., said the greatest danger does not come from the objects we know about but from the ones we haven't identified.
In one example of the lack of attention the issue is receiving in Washington, Rohrabacher said, funding for the Arecibo, Puerto Rico, radio telescope, which searches for near-Earth objects, is in danger in next year's budget.
If scientists are able to identify a potential killer asteroid, the deeper question is how to deflect it. Ideas have ranged from using nuclear weapons to sending a spacecraft that would use gravity to drag the object off its destructive path.
Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company
Sources: Obama near decision on Afghanistan troops
Bill Clinton meets with Senate Dems on health care
FBI reassessing past look at Fort Hood suspect
UPDATE - 08:49 AM
Bodies of 6 UK war dead return from Afghanistan
D.C. sniper mastermind set to be executed Tuesday

Ken Auletta talks about "Googled"
Ken Auletta talks about Google with Brier Dudley at the Seattle Central Library.
nwjobs

Post a comment

Michelle Goodman blogs about work/life balance.
How to tell your office you're gravely ill
Post a comment
nwautos

Choosing a new sedan? Weigh the impact of your choice on your wallet and on the planet.
Post a comment
- 'Missing' SeaTac man found with new name, in new state
- Police: DNA from officer's slaying matches suspect
- Prosecutors consider charges against suspect in police shooting
- Three more fires ignite in Greenwood
- Steve Kelley | Hasselbeck gives Seahawks' sagging season a stay of execution
- Plans call for Triangle to become West Seattle gateway
- McGinn next Seattle mayor; Mallahan concedes as vote gap widens
- Trucker dies as big-rig plummets off SF bridge
- Lt. governor's son shot by co-worker in Kent; gunman then shot self
- Bill Clinton meets with Senate Dems on health care
- Prosecutors prepare charges against suspect in police shooting
259 - House health bill unacceptable to many in Senate
258 - Pelosi tours Seattle's Swedish after health-care vote
190 - Prosecutors prepare charges against suspect in police shooting
144 - Alleged shooter tied to mosque of 9/11 hijackers
139 - Resolute Fort Hood soldiers ready for return
121 - McGinn more than doubles his lead over Mallahan
112 - Josh Smith picks UCLA
77 - King County OKs 'don't ask' law on immigration
70 - Cutaia says replay handled properly on Austin TD
69
- For 80-year-old Maple Valley man, hoops aren't just a dream
- Plans call for Triangle to become West Seattle gateway
- Three more fires ignite in Greenwood
- 'Missing' SeaTac man found with new name, in new state
- Silver Lake restaurant destroyed by fire
- Pakistani-American cafe, bar owner on verge of being Granite Falls mayor
- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tours Seattle's Swedish after health-care vote
- All You Can Eat | Fruit flies: thrill to the kill
- Taste | Ruth Reichl still reigns as queen of America's culinary scene
- Book review | Ayn Rand: goddess of the market, gateway to the American right





