|
 |
 advertisement
| |
|
|
|
|
|
UK Researchers to Study Asteroid Threat
By Reuters
posted: 12:35 pm ET
20 August 2001
|
uk_asteroid_010820 LONDON (Reuters) - Britain unveiled plans on Monday for a research center to address growing public fears of asteroids or comets colliding with Earth. Officials said the center aimed to meet increasing concern -- fueled by Hollywood films such as ``Armageddon'' -- that the planet could be hit by an object similar to one believed to have wiped out dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Science Minister David Sainsbury said the center would also increase public understanding of asteroids and comets, also known as Near Earth Objects. ``There are currently no known large NEOs whose orbit puts them on collision course with Earth, but while the risk of being hit is very remote, the potential for damage exists,'' Sainsbury said in statement inviting plans for the proposed center. Government officials said it was hoped to open the center early next year, and it would receive $360,000 from public funds over the first three years. The proposal is the government's first response to a special task force set up last year to look into the dangers of asteroids colliding with the Earth. Campaigners say Britons have a greater chance of being killed by an asteroid than winning the national lottery. ``Roughly speaking it seems that once every 100,000 years an object hits the earth of sufficient size to wipe out a quarter of life on Earth,'' Liberal Democrat MP Lembit Opik said last year after waging a one-man campaign to persuade the government of the seriousness of the threat. The Earth's atmosphere protects against most space objects smaller than about 50 yards in diameter, but larger objects can get through. On average, larger objects impact on earth slightly less than once every 100 years, officials say.
|
|
|
|
|
advertisement
