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Plans to map asteroids that could hit Earth

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    Former astronaut weighs in on organization's plans

  • Duration 4:18
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A nonprofit organization just announced plans to save the earth from asteroids.

The B 612 foundation wants to map every asteroid that potentially could -- our planet.

Now it has happened before as recently as well 1911 or so -- asteroid hit Siberia.

The impact a thousand times the force of the -- bomb.

Dropped on Hiroshima.

These are pictures of some of the trees that were flattened.

As a result of that asteroid impact and the group says a larger asteroid could have devastating effects.

The sentinel will be a one and a half time 25 foot tall infrared telescope launched into space.

It would orbit our solar system to map potentially dangerous asteroids that could impact the earth.

Let's talk about it with Tom Jones a former NASA shuttle astronaut a Fox News contributor and author of planet polity unlocking the secrets of the solar system.

Is this just pie in the sky Tom or can they really find these things and maybe do something.

About -- I guess that's the harder part.

Now John there's some really good science behind this approach by the B 612 group we need to get out into space with a search telescope.

To overcome -- if inefficiencies that we have a ground based telescopes we can only look at the sky at night.

Here on earth and telescopes on the ground have a hard time looking closer to the sun.

Where a lot of these dangerous asteroids work we can never discover them at a quick pace from here.

Need to go out and -- space to look past the -- and have a better viewing vantage point facility orbit of this thing would be way out there and way way out in the solar system -- We want to get on an inside track.

To the Earth's orbit so something that's in the same.

-- as Venus would be able to look.

Out past the earth and by having the inside track will race around the inside of the Earth's orbit and be able to pick up asteroids faster.

And if we have to have our telescopes firmly on the ground here.

And what are the stakes if we don't I mean this this.

Asteroid that landed in Siberia -- -- -- about a hundred years ago it did that huge amount of damage luckily it hit in Siberia and hardly anybody was little there at the time right.

Right this is a natural disaster that we actually know how to prevent if we do the search if we do warning.

And then apply our space technology to prevent the impact we can't ward off these sudden -- wind storms like we had here in Washington over the weekend.

This is something we can change so.

The real threat is there about thirty times a year we had a Hiroshima sized explosion in the atmosphere fortunately those asteroids burst and our disintegrated farther up.

Well above our heads but larger ones as he mentioned can come down a level of city.

Happens every few centuries we have the technology to do something about it let's get started all right what is the technology I mean it's one thing to send a telescope up there to try to find these things.

Isn't it something else to be able to Alter their course to you know push him out of the way so they don't hitter.

Well we haven't rehearsed an actual deflection mission but it's well within the things that we've done in space before so.

If you find them early.

And have a warning provided decades in advance of a dangerous asteroid then you can either target out of the way with gravity tractor -- -- -- a spacecraft next to a small asteroid.

Where he can slam it with a hyper velocity bullet that -- just change the -- velocity enough to make it -- disappoint with earth.

A decade down the road and last ditch you might use a nuclear explosive but that's a very rare case -- have to apply.

That technology but all three.

Are within our means if we can do the search and then demonstrate this -- -- a harmless asteroid first how big do these things have to be to be threatening I mean we've always heard -- most meteors burn up in the Earth's atmosphere that's our little protective layer how big does one have to be.

And to get through the atmosphere you need an asteroid is about the size of that.

Of forty meters something like from that goal line to the fifty yard line on a football field that we'll get through and cause an explosion on the ground and of course Siberia.

Luckily it didn't hit a -- wooded area.

In 190 wait but if it had been a few hours later might have hit London Berlin Washington DC.

While interesting and is B 612 organization a private foundation not NASA.

Doing this work -- interest the other gonna raise the funds privately Philanthropic plea to but I saw an asteroid insurance policy and donate the results to -- NASA and other space -- -- interest it.

Tom Jones thanks.

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