The Exploding Asteroid Threat

WATCH LIVE: Defending Earth From Asteroids

On October 25, 2013, a panel of astronauts and cosmonauts discussed the asteroid threat and what we can do to prevent impacts and injury. Moderated by Neil deGrasse Tyson, this panel was hosted by the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.
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There are about a million near-Earth asteroids that are large enough to substantially damage or destroy a major city, as evidenced by the explosion over Chelyabinsk, Russia, this past February of a meteor no bigger than a large truck, which injured more than 1,000 people.

With current space technology, scientists know how to deflect the majority of hazardous near-Earth objects. But prevention is only possible if nations work together on detection and deflection. Learn about the risks and the steps that are needed to avoid these potential natural disasters from a group of astronauts and cosmonauts who recently helped develop recommendations to the United Nations for defending Earth from asteroid impact. The discussion takes place the same week the United Nations General Assembly adopts measures creating an international decision-making mechanism for planetary asteroid defense.

Participants include:

Neil deGrasse Tyson, Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden PlanetariumThomas Jones, former NASA astronaut, senior research scientist at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, and Association of Space Explorers (ASE) Near Earth Objects Committee member

Russell Schweickart, former NASA astronaut, ASE co-founder and Near Earth Objects Committee member, and co-founder and chairman emeritus of the B612 Foundation

Dumitru-Dorin Prunariu, former Romanian astronaut, ASE co-founder and Near Earth Objects Committee member, and vice president of the European International Institute for Risk, Security, and Communication Management

Soichi Noguchi, engineer and JAXA astronaut, and ASE Near Earth Objects Committee member

Edward Lu, former NASA astronaut, ASE Near Earth Objects Committee member, and co-founder, chairman, and CEO of the B612 Foundation

This panel discussion was cohosted by the Museum and the ASE, the professional society of astronauts and cosmonauts.