Close call coming: Averting the asteroid threat–Simple! Ask the Lightbringers

With an errant space rock heading this way, just how good are our asteroid defences – and how do we avert the cataclysm?

IT COULD easily be the plot for a Hollywood disaster movie. Last February, a young dental surgeon called Jaime Nomen was sailing along the Mediterranean coast of Spain, checking images on his laptop from an observatory 600 kilometres away. Suddenly he spotted a speck of light speeding through the constellation Boötes. Nomen knew exactly what it was.

He alerted the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which collects information about asteroids and comets. Telescopes around the world swung into action, checking the new asteroid's orbit. The result was sensational: asteroid 2012 DA14 was on near-collision course with the Earth. (New Scientist; registration required.)