{"id":964,"date":"2023-07-19T07:15:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-19T07:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/darylilbury.com\/?p=964"},"modified":"2024-03-31T13:03:37","modified_gmt":"2024-03-31T13:03:37","slug":"avoiding-armageddon-the-urgent-search-for-near-earth-objects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/darylilbury.com\/?p=964","title":{"rendered":"Avoiding Armageddon: The urgent search for near-Earth objects"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In 1998, American actor Bruce Willis blew up an asteroid and himself to save Earth\u2019s inhabitants from extinction. The asteroid in question, roughly the size of Texas, was fictional, but the film, Armageddon<\/em>, encouraged the millions who watched it to consider the actual scenario of a strike by one of the many celestial bodies that brushes past us. The film was inspired by a convention of leading scientists a few years earlier. Ever since, decisions made at that convention have guided international efforts to take action when a rogue asteroid has Earth in its sights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s tempting to think there\u2019s little in Earth\u2019s path as it hurtles through space, but in reality, it must dodge innumerable obstacles. Space is not a wilderness; it bristles with all manner of activity. Much of it stays far away, but some travel to our neck of the woods. Some we can see coming, others we can\u2019t. These visitors have a name \u2013 near-Earth objects or NEOs \u2013 and not all are benign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can read the rest of this article, complete with additional feature content, on the Research Features website here<\/a>. (Opens in a new tab)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 1998, American actor Bruce Willis blew up an asteroid and himself to save Earth\u2019s inhabitants from extinction. The asteroid in question, roughly the size of Texas, was fictional, but the film, Armageddon, encouraged the millions who watched it to consider the actual scenario of a strike by one of the many celestial bodies that brushes…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":965,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[107,175,21],"tags":[169,25,182],"class_list":["post-964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-research","category-science","tag-research-features","tag-space","tag-space-science"],"yoast_head":"\nAvoiding Armageddon: The urgent search for near-Earth objects - Daryl Ilbury<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/darylilbury.com\/?p=964\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Avoiding Armageddon: The urgent search for near-Earth objects - Daryl Ilbury\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In 1998, American actor Bruce Willis blew up an asteroid and himself to save Earth\u2019s inhabitants from extinction. The asteroid in question, roughly the size of Texas, was fictional, but the film, Armageddon, encouraged the millions who watched it to consider the actual scenario of a strike by one of the many celestial bodies that brushes...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/darylilbury.com\/?p=964\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Daryl Ilbury\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-07-19T07:15:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-03-31T13:03:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/darylilbury.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/NEO-asteroid-heading-for-Earth.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"731\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Daryl Ilbury\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Daryl Ilbury\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/darylilbury.com\/?p=964\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/darylilbury.com\/?p=964\",\"name\":\"Avoiding Armageddon: The urgent search for near-Earth objects - Daryl Ilbury\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/darylilbury.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/darylilbury.com\/?p=964#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/darylilbury.com\/?p=964#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/darylilbury.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/NEO-asteroid-heading-for-Earth.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-07-19T07:15:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-03-31T13:03:37+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/darylilbury.com\/#\/schema\/person\/a14819958c5543922b4f89590d3f7407\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/darylilbury.com\/?p=964#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/darylilbury.com\/?p=964\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/darylilbury.com\/?p=964#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/darylilbury.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/NEO-asteroid-heading-for-Earth.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/darylilbury.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/NEO-asteroid-heading-for-Earth.png\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":731,\"caption\":\"Asteroid hurtling towards Earth\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/darylilbury.com\/?p=964#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/darylilbury.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Avoiding Armageddon: The urgent search for near-Earth objects\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/darylilbury.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/darylilbury.com\/\",\"name\":\"Daryl Ilbury\",\"description\":\"Science Journalist, Writer and Author\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/darylilbury.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/darylilbury.com\/#\/schema\/person\/a14819958c5543922b4f89590d3f7407\",\"name\":\"Daryl Ilbury\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/darylilbury.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a0c20476e6c95b82fba498dc74de7066d8e5d80ee0da942689fb507062c4590e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a0c20476e6c95b82fba498dc74de7066d8e5d80ee0da942689fb507062c4590e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Daryl Ilbury\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/darylilbury.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Avoiding Armageddon: The urgent search for near-Earth objects - Daryl Ilbury","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/darylilbury.com\/?p=964","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Avoiding Armageddon: The urgent search for near-Earth objects - Daryl Ilbury","og_description":"In 1998, American actor Bruce Willis blew up an asteroid and himself to save Earth\u2019s inhabitants from extinction. 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