The United Nations is to adopt an asteroid defence plan. The decision emerged following recommendations from concerned former astronauts, including Ed Lu, who suggested it was unacceptable that many people within the space industry only knew about the Chelyabinsk meteor because it appeared on their Twitter and Facebook feeds.

The UN responded to Lu’s plea by setting up an “International Asteroid Warning Group” that allows member nations to share information about space objects they suspect to be dangerous.

Should any officials across the new global space agency network detect asteroids that pose a threat to Earth, the UN’s Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space will allow nations to coordinate special missions to destroy the hazard. It is suspected that the easiest method of defence would involve smashing spacecraft into threatening asteroids, causing them to veer off course.

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