NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine believes the prospect of a killer asteroid colliding with Earth isn't something reserved for science fiction films.
Bridenstine made the case for why the US should be fortifying its defense against meteor events on Monday at the 2019 Planetary Defense Conference in Washington, D.C.
It comes as NASA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other parties will conduct a defense drill at the conference that simulates what it would be like if an asteroid were heading straight for Earth.
We have to make sure that people understand that this is not about Hollywood, it's not about the movies,' Bridenstine said at the conference.
'This is about ultimately protecting the only planet we know, right now, to host life and that is the planet Earth.'
He pointed to the Chelyabinsk Event as evidence of the increasing seriousness and potential for these events.
The meteor, which blazed across the southern Ural Mountain range in February 2013, was the largest recorded meteor strike in more than a century, after the Tunguska event of 1908.
More than 1,600 people were injured by the shock wave from the explosion, estimated to be as strong as 20 Hiroshima atomic bombs.
While those kinds of events are estimated to occur once every 60 years, Bridenstine said they've happened three times in the last 100 years.
More at https://www.dailymail.co.uk/science...hief-warns-asteroid-crash-Earth-lifetime.html
Bridenstine made the case for why the US should be fortifying its defense against meteor events on Monday at the 2019 Planetary Defense Conference in Washington, D.C.
It comes as NASA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other parties will conduct a defense drill at the conference that simulates what it would be like if an asteroid were heading straight for Earth.
We have to make sure that people understand that this is not about Hollywood, it's not about the movies,' Bridenstine said at the conference.
'This is about ultimately protecting the only planet we know, right now, to host life and that is the planet Earth.'
He pointed to the Chelyabinsk Event as evidence of the increasing seriousness and potential for these events.
The meteor, which blazed across the southern Ural Mountain range in February 2013, was the largest recorded meteor strike in more than a century, after the Tunguska event of 1908.
More than 1,600 people were injured by the shock wave from the explosion, estimated to be as strong as 20 Hiroshima atomic bombs.
While those kinds of events are estimated to occur once every 60 years, Bridenstine said they've happened three times in the last 100 years.
More at https://www.dailymail.co.uk/science...hief-warns-asteroid-crash-Earth-lifetime.html
