Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Eye of the illustrator captures asteroid Apophis near Earth.
Credit: Dan Durda – FIAAA

It is a cosmic roll of the dice. There’s no doubt that a major asteroid or comet strike could cause extensive devastation and profoundly affect life on Earth.

Thwarting an incoming object that has Earth in its crosshairs will mean deflecting or disrupting the hazardous object. That’s a task of planetary defense, an “applied planetary science” to address the Near-Earth Object (NEO) impact hazard.

DART mission schematic shows the impact on the moonlet of asteroid (65803) Didymos. Post-impact observations from Earth-based optical telescopes and planetary radar would, in turn, measure the change in the moonlet’s orbit about the parent body.
Also shown is planned ride-along CubeSat, the Italian Space Agency’s Light Italian CubeSat for Imaging of Asteroid (LICIACube).
Credits: NASA/Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab

Lindley Johnson is NASA’s Planetary Defense Officer and Program Executive of the Planetary Defense Coordination Office. An email from him includes the on-the-job line: “Hic Servare Diem,” Latin for “Here to Keep Your Day.”

I caught up with Johnson to discuss recent events and a look at what’s on the planetary defense agenda in the coming year.

Go to my new Space.com story:

“Defending Earth against dangerous asteroids: Q&A with NASA’s Lindley Johnson” – A major asteroid or comet strike could cause extensive devastation and profoundly affect life on Earth.

https://www.space.com/defending-earth-asteroids-nasa-lindley-johnson-interview