NASA Forms New Planetary Defense Office To Manage Asteroid Threats (cnn.com)

An anonymous reader writes: NASA has set up a new Planetary Defense Coordination Office to detect and track near-Earth objects. CNN reports: "The department, which includes the position of Planetary Defense Officer, is managed by the Planetary Science Division of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington DC. And its mission includes the early detection of potentially hazardous objects (PHOs) — asteroids and comets which get within 0.05 Astronomical Units of Earth's orbit around the sun (7.5 million kilometers) and are large enough, greater than around 30 — 50 meters (98 — 164 feet), to reach the Earth's surface." Bruce Willis had no comment on his level of involvement in the new agency.

Comments

Terrible marketing.

[hey!]

Planetary Defense Office? Really? About the only thing worse I can think to call it is the Planetary Defense Registry of Motor Vehicles..

Here's how I'd sex up the presentation. I'd call it the Planetary Defense Force, issue snazzy uniforms and fund the program by selling T-shirts and caps. I feel certain that would raise far more money than Congress would ever appropriate for this purpose, except possibly in the event we noticed an asteroid that's actually going to hit us next Tuesday.