Adam Driver asked NASA how it plans to save Earth from world-ending asteroids
Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/adam-driver-asks-nasa-save-earth-from-world-ending-asteroids-2023-3
Author: Morgan McFall-Johnsen
Adam Driver sat down with NASA to talk about avoiding an asteroid apocalypse. The actor is launching a new film, called "65," where he plays a space pilot who crash-lands on Earth at the end of the Cretaceous period 65 million years ago, then discovers the approach of the asteroid which drove dinosaurs' extinction. "What if we found out that an asteroid like this were going to hit our planet today?" Driver asked in a video NASA posted last week. "Those large ones, most of them have been found. They're easier to spot. There are fewer of them," Fast, who manages NASA's near-Earth object observations, said in the video. "But there are asteroids still left to be found that aren't that large, but still are of a size that could do damage should they impact." Specifically, NASA is on the hunt for asteroids larger than 140 meters (460 feet) wide. Those are big enough to flatten a city. Congress had mandated that NASA identify and track 90% of those city-killers, to ensure their orbits aren't taking them on a collision course with Earth. "If an asteroid were discovered that were going to impact Earth, NASA's role would be to inform planning, to give information about the asteroid, about where the impact would happen, about what the effects might be," Fast said. The agency also has the ability to intervene and push such an asteroid away from our planet. Three NASA missions are filling the planetary-defense toolbelt.