Asteroid threat 'to cease'
2004-08-16 08:34
London - Killer asteroids will essentially cease to be a threat within the next 30 years, according to a leading expert.
Scientists are discovering near-earth asteroids (NEAs) so fast that the chances of one hitting the earth with no warning is likely to become minute, said Dr Benny Peiser.
Since 1995 the number of known NEAs had shot up from just 300 to 3 000.
By 2008, it was expected that 90% of the estimated 1 000 to 1 200 asteroids big enough to wipe out civilisation would be found, said Dr Peiser, one of the world's leading asteroid experts from Liverpool John Moores University.
The rest of these space rocks, measuring more than a kilometre across, would probably be detected within the next 20 years.
Powerful telescopes
Two powerful new telescopes due to start operating in the next few years would find as many asteroids each month as have been discovered in the last decade, said Dr Peiser.
"Within the next one or two generations we will no longer have asteroid impact disaster movies," he said at a science briefing in London.
"The good news is we have now developed not just the knowledge about the threat we face but also potentially the technology with which to deal with it."
Future discoveries and space missions would provide information about how to deflect an asteroid on collision course with the earth.
Within 20 to 30 years, search systems would exist with the ability to detect 90% of all NEAs larger than 150 metres across.
Dr Peiser said if an asteroid did hit the earth it would be most likely to strike an uninhabited region or an ocean. - Sapa-dpa
- SAPA