The UN Is Assembling a Team to Save Us From Killer Asteroids

Armageddon

When a meteor exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia in February, the world’s space agencies found out along with the rest of us, on Twitter and YouTube. That, says former astronaut Ed Lu, is unacceptable—and the United Nations agrees. Last week the General Assembly approved a set of measures that Lu and other astronauts have recommended to protect the planet from the dangers of rogue asteroids. 

Meet the International Asteroid Warning Group, which in theory will put a stop to asteroids with death on their spacerock minds. If the group sees an asteroid heading our way they’ll pass that info on to the UN’s Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (as opposed to the Committee on the Warmongering Uses of Outer Space), whose job it’ll be to send a spacecraft to knock the asteroid out of orbit.

More at Scientific American, via The Mary Sue.