Not enough money being spent to find killer asteroids

SkyandTelescope.com - News Blog - New Report Spotlights Impact Hazards: "In 1998 Congress felt worried enough about the sky falling that it tasked NASA with finding 90% of all the near-Earth asteroids at least 1 km across within 10 years. (Anything this size would likely trigger global devastation during and after its collision.) Then Congress raised the bar in 2005, mandating that NASA find 90% of all the threatening asteroids with diameters down to 140 meters (460 feet) by 2020."

Comment -- This article says Congress has not appropriated enough money for NASA to find most of the asteroids that are big enough to really smack us.

The good news is that there actually are some plans in place to move a threatening asteroid away from a collision. But the easiest method (using a spacecraft to push the asteroid out of the way) requires decades of lead time. Which makes it all the more important that we find these rocks soon! Keep looking up...