Yet another report about asteroids and Earth-- this time involving what NASA promises will be a near miss. Asteroid 2012 DA14 was discovered earlier this year. It's about 150 feet across, travels around the Sun in an orbit similar to Earth's, and has close approaches to Earth about every six months. That quick profile might make it a reasonable early candidate for the first manned mission to an asteroid.
Before that happens, however, there will be an extremely close shave in February of next year as 2012 DA14 whizzes past our planet on a path that will be within the orbit of geostationary satellites.
So, between now and 2040, at least three asteroids will come close to Earth-- and two of those, 2012 DA14 and 2011 AG5-- were discovered only recently. There may be others. If policymakers around the world fail to take note and begin to build planetary defense capabilities, the argument that we need different policymakers will have some resonance. Hopefully, world leaders don't wait until there's a disaster before they act.
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