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Yekaterina Pustynnikova / AP
In this photo provided by Chelyabinsk.ru, a meteor contrail is seen over Chelyabinsk on Friday, Feb. 15, 2013.
There aren't yet any advance warning systems that could give Earthlings a heads-up before an untracked space rock hits. But a telescope project in Hawaii aims to change that, and potentially provide a chance for those in threatened areas to evacuate. A meteor alert might have made a difference to Russia's Chelyabinsk region on Friday.
Read: Nuclear-like in its intensity, Russia meteor blast is largest since 1908
"There are excellent ongoing surveys for asteroids that are capable of seeing such a rock with one to two days' warning, but they do not cover the whole sky each night, so there's a good chance that any given rock can slip by them for days to weeks. This one obviously did," astronomer John Tonry of the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii told NBC News Friday.
Tonry is one of the key players in a NASA-backed effort to build ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System), two observatories in Hawaii that can simultaneously scan the entire visible sky twice a night.
"If ATLAS were up and running we might very well have seen" the meteor that hit Russia, he said, and "could have provided one to two days' warning."
However, he adds, the success of detection "depends on a couple of assumptions." One is that it's not cloudy. Another is that the asteroid doesn't go over the South Pole, "where ATLAS cannot see."
Telescopes, Tony said, "can only see the sky above the horizon, obviously. A telescope that's sited in the northern hemisphere (which ATLAS will be) cannot see all the way to the South Pole of the sky." And, "if the asteroid were coming from that direction, there's a good chance that it would never rise above the horizon for a northern telescope before it hits."
While it would "easy to build multiple copies of ATLAS and put some in the south, and spread them out so they see different weather patterns ... that's for the future," he said.
Dozens were hospitalized and nearly 1,000 residents suffered minor injuries from fallen debris and the impact of the meteor's powerful landing. NBC's Tom Costello reports.
The ATLAS telescopes are "just now" being built, Tonry said; ATLAS should "start running around the end of 2014 and be fully operational by the end of 2015." NASA has provided $5 million in funding for ATLAS.
At one time, NASA considered launching an asteroid-hunting probe, but that didn't go forward because of the cost, estimated at $500 million almost a decade ago.
Other private efforts are in the works, too.
Last year, leaders of the nonprofit B612 Foundation, including Apollo astronaut Rusty Schweickart, started a campaign to fund and launch a space telescope that will hunt for potential killer asteroids over the course of five and a half years.
Another venture, from a group called Planetary Resources, ultimately wants to do asteroid mining, but says its first step is to "launch an orbital fleet of 'personal space telescopes' capable of looking out into the heavens or back down on Earth," wrote Alan Boyle, NBC News.com's Science editor last year.
More about cosmic hits (and near misses):
- Streaking meteor explodes in Russian sky, injuring nearly 1,000
- Asteroid's close shave ranks among Earth's biggest hits (and misses)
- Meteorite from California fireball reveals its secrets
Suzanne Choney is a contributing writer for NBC News.com. You can follow her on Twitter.
NASA looks at the flyby of asteroid 2012 DA14 from several amateur observatories across Australia.
Leave a Comment:
there are thousands of these falling to earth every year, heck maybe even daily, most of them just happen to fall on the 99% of the planet that has nobody looking up to the sky for it: in the middle of the ocean, desert, jungle, etc. then one day a single one strayed a little too close where there is a little village and we all went panicky for want of a warning system.....
stupidest race we are, but that's assuming there are smarter ones out there.
hmm....the right moment to question the purpose and very existence of Patriot and SAM stations deployed along Poland border and around Europe. Ever since the heat of Cold-war Two countries has been arguing, confirming the very possession of Missile Intercepting Systems claiming to avoid meteors meanwhile the intention is otherwise. Why are Patriots and SAM for?? Showcase?? Just to show off?? To blurb???
A "wake up call". I love it. As if we had no clue that a meteor/asteroid could hit the earth. Wow! Surprise! Warning system looks like a real loser. Nobody saw this object before it entered the atmosphere. Sure, we might see the big ones ahead of time, but so what? There is nothing we can do about it. The world has no capability to deflect or destroy any asteroid and most likely never will.
wouldn't you like to have a few seconds to place your head between your legs and kiss your ass GOODBYE?
Wow. Just in time for the meteor, er ... yesterday. Way to go.
CNN Article: 'Our rough calculation says a large meteor impact on the same day as closest passage of the DA14 asteroid is really improbable.'
Yet is hits Russia. Coincidence? No. It's a sign from God.
Россия. Вы измените или оплатите.
Then God has a lousy sense of direction.
not to mention a bad sense of choice since the BIG one just went zooming right on past
there may be just some hope yet of something big enough to eradicate the tea party and their folly.
They say, once they have this thing in place and activated, it will give us time to evacuate. My questions is, "to where"?
Also, does anyone believe, if something of substantial size was about to hit the earth and cause catastrophic damage worldwide, they would actually let us know? I don't think so. Sure, there might be some warning from the amateur folks over ham radios but it would eventually leak to national news.....hopefully before it hits. At least we would be able to stand outside and watch it come in before we kiss our arses goodbye. lol
This will also be the day everyone will be able to tell their boss they can take this job and.............
Something big enough to destroy everything would probably be picked up by multiples sources. But something like this or a little larger, with one or two days warning an accurate trajectory, people could evacuate or at least duck.
This would be about the same as the old nuclear bomb school drills back when I was a kid. Crawl under your desk and bend over.... Yep, that helps. But this is more expensive so its gotta be a better idea... sure.
"Upon seeing the white flash of the explosion, PLACE YOUR HEAD BETWEEN YOUR LEGS AND KISS YOUR ASS GOODBYE!"
I certainly wouldn't want to be a resident of the Burj in Dubai if in the future if a Tunguska type event blasted within 5 to 10 miles of the city overhead.
That's because with 28,261 glass cladding panels it would rip everyone to shreds in half the city with all the falling and blasted glass.
I prefer Hobbit life no thanks for the towers!
USA is capable to use NMD, National Missile Defense, to protect any flying subject, such as missile or meteror, via our satellite sysem, to take any hostile object down that is inside our zones, such as ocean.
This time the Russia has a hole in its defense system.
Billie, ya know... there is this old game they play in psychiatry school. They take regular people and ask them to start describing some imaginary thing. And they do. And the psych people chase it further and further, and eventually the imaginary thing becomes reality for the person. And they don't play this game to study how people can imagine things... its all about how people can take an absolute of nothingness, and develop it into something that fully exists in the mind. Hard to explain, but I think for them it is a fun game to play at deep levels. Mr. Scott, beam me out of here...
nah go - "Scotty - beam me up - there's no intelligent life on the planet..."
LOL. Thank you for the correction. Been a long time since I was assigned to round up those little furry things (I have no idea how it is spelled)
Meteor warning system in the works — but not ready yet No kidding !!!!
From what I learnt the scariest part is there is a gap between the big ones NASA detects and the small ones that burn up in the atmosphere, it's definitely is a shooting gallery out there! In fact, the odds of dying from an asteroid are more common than you would think! I talk about it in my blog post here ->(), as well as the differences between meteoroids/asteroids/comets and the effects they will have on earth if one hits!
From what I learnt the scariest part is there is a gap between the big ones NASA detects and the small ones that burn up in the atmosphere, it's definitely is a shooting gallery out there! In fact, the odds of dying from an asteroid are more common than you would think! I talk about it in my blog post here ->(), as well as the differences between meteoroids/asteroids/comets and the effects they will have on earth if one hits!
What good is a warning system without a means to deflect?
A mine field would be cheaper, and more reliable.
OOOO KAY!??
There are two possibilities.
1. We spend the money to detect asteroid threats and take action to save ourselves.
2. We choose not spend the money, in which case we don't deserve to be saved.
Liberals don't deserve to be saved...
A warning system by 2015? What can anyone do about a meteor entering our atmosphere? About all the time we would have, if it is to strike a large population area is to bendover and kiss our butts good bye. Oh, I know, its another Obama initiative that won't cost the American taxpayer "one dime" and not contribute to the national debt.
patriotson.......
...and, YOUR "plan" is to simply ignore our growing ability to detect cosmic projectiles before they impact our Earth.
No doubt if asked, 100 years ago, you would have considered attempts to forecast weather a fool's folly.
Thankfully, the human race mostly IGNORES folks such as yourself. Think about that the next time you consult a weather forecast.
There's only so much funding that can be used to scan so much of the sky and, begging your pardon, sir, it's a big @ss sky.
Who besides the U.S. is going to fund these projects and maintain them? There might be one or two private organizations but why is it the USA is the only country mentioned that has any money into these projects? If it were to only protect this country, then great I'm all for it, but why are we covering the world? Because we're the "good" guys, its expected? Well I'm tired of my tax dollars "saving" the world and then having half the world resent it. We have issues that are not being addressed in this country that we should be working on like mental health care system, elderly care, childhood hunger to name a few!
When the Earth is destroyed it will be destroyed by fire... there is NOTHING you can do about it. It is inevitable! Whether it is by meteor strike, all the vegetation drying and burning off from "global warming", or a massive eruption of a few super-caldera volcanoes like the one just WAITING to blow up under Yellowstone national park. Or, a combination of ALL OF THE ABOVE. What if the Earths core stops and we lose our magnetic field? Add fried by cosmic rays to the list.
What are your idiot liberal plans to avoid death when a super-volcano erupts? a really large bottle cap?
Make me laugh some more you pansy, scared of everything, scared of death fools. Maybe if you had a bit of faith you wouldn't be running around screaming "the sky is falling" and could actually enjoy the LIFE YOU ACTUALLY HAVE!
Just shut up and get back in the welfare line......you will never make sense and you will never improve yourselves....