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International Efforts toward the Spaceguard System
Author(s) -
CARUSI A.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-6632.1997.tb48372.x
Subject(s) - astrobiology , nothing , plan (archaeology) , earth (classical element) , population , politics , political science , geography , astronomy , physics , sociology , law , epistemology , demography , philosophy , archaeology
Near‐Earth Objects are responsible for the cratering of the Earth‐Moon system. Depending on the size of the impacting body, the effects of these events on the terrestrial environment range from nothing at all to catastrophes which may pose a very serious threat to life on Earth. Our knowledge of the population of bodies responsible for Earth cratering is currently very poor, because only a minority of them has been discovered and because the parameters and the possible evolution of their orbits are very uncertain. In the last few years several initiatives have been started in order to plan alert systems. A global observational network, the Spaceguard System, is being studied at an international level. Consciousness of the threat has also driven actions at a political level that are, however, still very far from conveying to these researches the resources that would be necessary. In this paper I give a short account of the activity that the International Astronomical Union has initiated by creating the Working Group on near‐Earth objects.