B612 does not endorse the alarming and sensationalist tone (“humankind could be wiped out at any moment”) of an article it contributed to last week.

This is completely contrary to B612’s message that we and others are working towards addressing this issue in a methodical way and that progress is being made. Both the factual mistakes in the article and the sensationalist tone were then compounded in each new iteration of the story that was subsequently published around the web.

The main theme we were trying to convey is that a comprehensive dynamic map of the solar system is needed in order to know asteroids orbits that bring them close to Earth which makes them strategically, scientifically, and economically important. New and advanced telescopes such as LSST and hopefully NEOcam, will provide new data for this map, but we need more. Our team is eager to build this map using data from new telescopes dedicated to asteroid discovery. Our secondary theme is that scientists and engineers around the world need funding for their asteroid discovery, scientific and analytical work to make this map possible.

At B612 we are advancing our research in the area of synthetic tracking that could detect and track asteroids too small to be adequately tracked by current technology. We are building the Asteroid Decision Analysis and Mapping (ADAM) project to analyze the anticipated new data rapidly in partnership with institutions around the world. And we have been proud partner to Asteroid Day, a global day of education and awareness that encourages people around the world to learn about all aspects of asteroids.

Danica Remy
President