Our planet has been hit by asteroids more times in the last decade than you can probably imagine, and more could be on their way.
Thankfully, though, there are ways to prevent asteroids from plummeting into Earth and causing some serious damage.
The B612 Foundation, an organization committed to identifying potentially harmful asteroids in space, will present a new video today at the Museum of Flight that will show viewers 26 explosions that have occurred in the past decade due to asteroid impacts and explain what is being done to prevent future incidents.
The B612 Foundation is currently raising money for what it calls the Sentinel Mission, an ambitious plan to send an infrared deep space telescope into the atmosphere by 2018 to discover an estimated 500,000 asteroids.
Although their missions are different, B612 is similar to Planetary Resources, a Seattle-area company backed by some of the biggest names in technology and aerospace with plans to send its own spacecraft into orbit to swarm asteroids and mine natural resources like water and platinum group metals.
Following the video, astronauts Ed Lu — CEO of B612 Foundation — Tom Jones and Bill Anders will answer questions at 11:30 a.m. You can watch the live stream below to see what they have to say about the asteroids. For more about the B612 Foundation, check out this FAQ.
