The United Nations is adopting a plan to defend the world against threatening asteroids. The decision came after recommendations by former astronauts, including Ed Lu, who argued that the planet needs to be defended against potential rogue asteroids.

Lu used the Chelyabinsk meteor as an example, explaining that the world’s space agencies only found out about the impact from Twitter and YouTube, just like the rest of us.

In response, The Scientific American reports that the UN will set up an “International Asteroid Warning Group” for member nations to share information about potentially hazardous space objects.

The UN’s Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space will coordinate missions should astronomers detect a hazardous asteroid. The mission will launch a spacecraft to collide with the asteroid and alter its course away from Earth.

….

Read more on The Inquistrfense,