Asteroid Impact Risk: ESA Unveils Proposed Missions to Study Near Earth Objects
Although the possibility of a large comet or asteroid colliding with the Earth is remote there have been many stories of Near Earth Objects (NEO’s) and their potential impact on the planet.
It is estimated that approximatley 50, 000 fragments of NEOs fall to Earth as meteorites each year, most of these are too small to cause any damage. These are formed when NEO’s smaller than 50m in size burn up on entry into the Earths atmosphere. Larger NEOs are less likely to collide with Earth but could cause widespread devastation.
With the increasing awareness of the danger of comets and asteroids the European Space Agency (ESA) has been supporting activities to monitor and investigate NEOs. ESA has recently launched a project to discover the best ideas from industry and academia on how to protect the Earth from NEOs. A panel of NEO experts met in June and have selected the six best proposals to investigate the nature of comets and asteroids. These proposals will be studied further and once submitted in 2003 ESA will judge which of the proposed missions should be developed further.
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