To improve knowledge and raise public awareness about the threat of an asteroid smacking planet Earth, two separate facilities were announced recently in the UK.
The Comet and Asteroid Information Network (CAIN) launched Jan. 1 and is managed by the International Spaceguard Information Center in Wales.
CAIN will pool information and research efforts of at least 9 universities and institutions, including the Armagh Observatory. The non-governmental consortium is expected to be a vocal proponent of increased international funding for research into detecting and tracking objects that could pose a risk to the planet.
No known asteroid is currently on a collision course with Earth. Yet scientists cite past impacts, such as one thought to have led to the demise of dinosaurs 65 million years ago, as evidence that civilization ought to prepare itself for the inevitable.
In a separate move, the British government announced it would open an Information Center on Near Earth Objects (NEOs) this spring, following through on plans spelled out nearly a year ago.
The governmental center, which will operate out of National Space Science Center in Leicester, will educate the public about asteroids and comets. It also aims to "analyze the potential threat from NEOs" that might hit Earth.
This threat "has been an issue of increased international interest and concern over recent years," said Science Minister Lord Sainsbury. "By setting up an information center we are helping the UK play a full and prominent role in an area that requires international action."
A gesture
The astronomer Sir Patrick Moore said the center would provide useful information to the public for a low cost. But other researchers are waiting for the British government to do more. They point out that the center, which will cost 300,000 over three years, is little more than a public relations facility.
Benny Peiser, an NEO expert at Liverpool John Moores University, called the center a "goodwill gesture by the UK government" but said its tight budget and lack of science personnel would limit its effectiveness.
The center will not be involved in the search for asteroids, though it might fund two small telescopes on the Canary Islands for doing follow-up surveys on asteroids that have been discovered by other researchers.
"There are concerns, however, that these instruments will simply reproduce the search efforts of other teams in the Northern Hemisphere," Peiser said.
Astronomers had hoped the UK would fund the construction of a large telescope in the Southern Hemisphere, where the NEO search has been less comprehensive. While a government task force set up two years ago recommended the telescope, no decision has been rendered.
Next page: the threat and the search is on
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