|
|
U.S. Air Force Brigadier General Simon Worden, deputy director of operations for the United States Space Command has voiced concerns that small asteroid collisions might be mistaken for nuclear first strikes, reports Space.com. The impact of asteroids and comets 100 m in diameter or less occurs much more frequently than larger collisions and can generate an airburst resembling that of a nuclear weapon. "These things hit every year and look like nuclear weapons," Worden said. "We now have 8 or 10 countries around the world with nuclear weapons...and not all of them have very good early warning systems. If one of these things hits, say anywhere in India or Pakistan today, we would have a very bad situation." Military satellites already monitor the globe for missile launches and also observe up to 30 fireballs a year that detonate in the upper atmosphere with an energy of more than a kiloton. Because of such events occur at high altitude, however, they have little or no effect on the ground. Worden says that the U.S. Defense Department is currently looking at the possibility of setting up an asteroid warning system and called for more efforts in cataloguing Near Earth Objects, perhaps to include a network of microsatellites. Worden gave his own personal perspective on planetary defence at the National Space Society's International Space Development Conference in Denver, Colorado.
More info: Space.com
|
