Astronomers estimate at 600,000 the number of asteroids in our solar system. About 10,000 are classified as NEOs (Near Earth Objects), ie their orbits will eventually close our planet. One of the latter asteroids, 17-20 kilometers in diameter struck last February 15 in the region of the Urals, in Russia, and released energy equivalent to 20 times that of the Hiroshima atomic bomb, which caused immense caused property damage and hundreds injured. What are the chances that a similar event happening again? What can you do about it?
Office for Space Situational Awareness (SSA, its acronym in English) of the International Space Station (ESA) was created four years ago to try to answer those questions. This week in Madrid meets one of the industrial partners of the SSA, Deimos Space, together with researchers from universities, space agencies and research institutes to reflect on the possibility that an event like the Urals can happen new .
“The purpose of this meeting is to develop a series of roadmaps to guide research and current and future development in NEO” say Gerhard Drolshagen SSA office. Remains to be done, they say, and many techniques that improve . “We have to improve the mathematical models that simulate the consequences of an impact, differentiating between the explosions in the air or on the ground impacts, or evaluating various strategies kinetic or explosive to divert their paths , among other things, “adds Gerhard Drolshagen SSA program.
The threat of NEOs, they say, not just theoretical. “We need to invest into action in the present to be prepared in the future,” adds Drolshagen. And for that, nothing better than synergies . The integration of all European resources and coordination at the time of detection of NEOs is key for effective scanning the sky and be able to issue warnings Advanced .
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