SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – Around 66 million years ago an asteroid hurtled towards Earth and smashed into the planet at a speed that’s estimated to be 58 times the speed of sound, setting off a chain of events that would change the planet forever. Now, NASA is ready to hunt for other asteroids that might be headed for us.
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When that approximately 6.5-mile wide ancient asteroid made impact, it had 4.5 billion times the explosive power of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. It caused drastic climate change that resulted in the extinction of dinosaurs. According to CBS News Senior Space Consultant Bill Harwood, the asteroids NASA is on the hunt for now aren’t quite as big.
“It’s certainly not ‘Armageddon’ let’s put it that way,” he said, explaining that the mission is geared at tracking down smaller asteroids – from 30 feet across to about 450 feet across. “They think there are hundreds of thousands of those out there that we haven't found yet,” he added.
Harwood was referring to the Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor. NASA describes it as “the first space telescope specifically designed to hunt asteroids and comets that may be potential hazards to Earth,” and said it is expected to launch no earlier than September 2027.
This February the NEO Surveyor passed a critical design review at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. After three days of presentations, NASA Standing Review Board determined that the mission meets all technical performance measures and requirements, allowing the project to move forward to the next phases of construction and testing.
Even though the smaller asteroids aren’t expected to cause as much damage as the one that ultimately wiped out the dinosaurs, Harwood said that impact from a 450-foot wide asteroid could wipe out an entire city. He also said that some of the asteroids headed towards us come from trajectories that are hard to see from Earth and that the main goal of the project is to find those.
“The overall goal is to find 90% of the bodies out there, asteroids and comets that are about up to 450... 500 feet across,” Harwood explained. “And if you find one and if you track it and it’s coming toward Earth and... maybe you've got time to figure out some way to go divert it.”
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In the past, NASA has been able to successfully move an asteroid. Harwood said a similar approach, slightly knocking them off course, might be used again in the future.
“I jokingly say: ‘You know, the odds are low, but the consequences are extreme.’ So even though the odds were low… it’s real,” he said. “And so, you now, if something came in and took out a city, then there’d be a lot of questions asked – ‘Why weren’t you looking for these things?’”
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