Growing up, I was always being warned about terrible things that could happen to me... Getting stuck in quicksand, a stranger in a white van offering me candy, and monsters hanging out in the closet waiting for dark.
Fortunately, none of them came true (so far) and as an adult I now recognize that there was a really, really low probability of them actually occurring. But I guess the fear of quicksand has been swapped with an asteroid hitting earth.
This fear is probably deeply rooted in sci-fi movies (thanks Hollywood!). And while there is a chance, there are no known asteroid threats to Earth within the next 100 years.
Still, as NASA is prioritizing putting men and women back on the moon (and beyond), 60% of Americans would favor monitoring asteroids and other objects that could potentially hit the Earth as the space agency’s top priority. No word on how the public felt about watching for UFOs!
The space agency keeps a close watch on 28,000 near-Earth objects, but seeing as how there are no known threats to Earth within the next 100 years, planetary defense doesn’t appear to be on the top of NASA’s priorities list.
https://gizmodo.com/nasa-focus-deflecting-asteroids-moon-artemis-dart-1850663351
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