David Roberson <dlrober...@aol.com> wrote: If this one was just discovered last February then how many more are > waiting on the sidelines?
NASA and others are taking the problem seriously. See their Near-Earth Object Project: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/ http://www.spaceguarduk.com/ Part of the credit for this goes to our late friend Arthur Clarke. He coined the term "Spaceguard" I think, and lobbied for this effort. The first thing to do is to locate as many asteroids as possible. If we have sufficient time I think we can deflect even a large object. I think there is an upper limit to the likely size. I doubt that an object the size of Mt. Everest is likely to appear out of deep space. - Jed
