Smash-up in space

Earth’s contender launches Tuesday 23rd November, 2021

NASA/Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab

Did you know that the Planetary Defence Coordination Office (PDCO) even existed? Well it does, which must mean Men In Black was true after all. It is American and part of NASA. They decided to set-up the PDCO in 2016, but not to deal with numerous aliens living on earth. It’s to identify Near-Earth objects (NEO’s) and develop plans in order to deal with any found to be on a collision course with us.

A calm way of saying that the testosterone filled film, Armageddon, 1998, with Bruce Willis, the oil driller and his friends or the more thoughtful Deep Impact, 1998, with Robert Duvall and Morgan Freeman, aren’t entirely fanciful science fiction stories. (If you like the asteroid storyline, then you might like Melancholia, 2011, with Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Kiefer Sutherland. Available to rent on Amazon Prime for 99p).

Near Earth Objects (NEO’s)

An NEO is any solar system object, usually an asteroid, occasionally a comet, whose orbit around the sun brings them into close proximity with Earth at some point. I vaguely remember learning about Halley’s Comet which flies by Earth every 75 years. If you’re lucky, you might see it twice in your lifetime. It’s…