Planetary Defense Coordination Office
Agency overview | |
---|---|
Formed | January 2016 |
Jurisdiction | United States |
Headquarters | Washington, D.C. |
Motto | Hic Servare Diem (Latin) "Here to Save the Day"[1] |
Agency executive |
|
Parent department | Science Mission Directorate, Planetary Science Division |
Parent agency | NASA |
Website | nasa |
The Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) is a
Its mission is to look for and catalogue near-Earth objects such as comets, asteroids, and potentially hazardous objects that could impact Earth, as well as help the U.S. government prepare for a potential impact event (and coordinate efforts to mitigate and deflect potential threats if one is detected).[4]
History
In 2005, the
In January 2016, NASA officially announced the establishment of the Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO), appointing Lindley Johnson to lead it as Planetary Defense Officer.[4][2][9] The PDCO was given the job of cataloging and tracking potentially hazardous near-Earth objects (NEO), such as asteroids and comets, larger than 30–50 meters in diameter (compare to the 20-meter Chelyabinsk meteor that exploded over Russia in 2013) and coordinating an effective threat response and mitigation effort.[10][11]
It has been a part of several key NASA missions, including OSIRIS-REx,[12] NEOWISE, and Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART). For NEOWISE, NASA worked with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, to investigate various impact-threat scenarios in order to learn the best approach to the threat of an incoming impactor. The office will continue to use the polar orbiting infrared telescope NEOWISE to detect any potentially hazardous objects.[13]
In popular culture
The 2021 movie
See also
- Asteroid impact avoidance
- Don't Look Up (2021 film)
- Double Asteroid Redirection Test
- Impact event
References
- ^ "How a real NASA patch anchors Netflix's 'Don't Look Up' in reality". collectSPACE.com. Archived from the original on January 28, 2022. Retrieved January 15, 2022.
- ^ a b "PDCO Organization". NASA. NASA. Archived from the original on November 28, 2021. Retrieved December 25, 2021.
- ^ Sarkar, Monica (January 13, 2016). "NASA Planetary Defense Office set up to save Earth". CNN. Archived from the original on December 25, 2021. Retrieved December 25, 2021.
- ^ Christian Science Monitor. Archivedfrom the original on January 12, 2016. Retrieved January 12, 2016.
- ^ a b Roulette, Joey (November 24, 2021). "NASA Launches New Mission: Crash Into Asteroid, Defend Planet Earth". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 10, 2022. Retrieved December 25, 2021.
- ^ Jonah Engel Bromwich (April 19, 2017). "Asteroid Misses Earth Narrowly, by Cosmic Standards". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 25, 2021. Retrieved December 25, 2021.
- ^ Martin, Paul K. (September 15, 2014). NASA’s Efforts to Identify Near-Earth Objects and Mitigate Hazards (PDF). NASA Office of Inspector General. Archived (PDF) from the original on December 22, 2021. Retrieved December 25, 2021.
- ^ Broad, William J. (June 18, 2015). "Agencies, Hoping to Deflect Comets and Asteroids, Step Up Earth Defense". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 25, 2021. Retrieved December 25, 2021.
- ^ David, Leonard (January 5, 2021). "Defending Earth against dangerous asteroids: Q&A with NASA's Lindley Johnson". Space.com. Archived from the original on October 5, 2021. Retrieved October 5, 2021.
- ^ "Planetary Defense Coordination Office". NASA. December 22, 2015. Archived from the original on July 28, 2022. Retrieved January 14, 2016. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ Templeton, Graham (January 12, 2016). "NASA is opening a new office for planetary defense". ExtremeTech. Archived from the original on July 6, 2017. Retrieved January 14, 2016.
- ^ "OSIRIS-REx". NASA. April 14, 2021. Archived from the original on July 15, 2022. Retrieved December 25, 2021.
- ^ Laguipo, Angela (January 16, 2016). "This Is How NASA's Planetary Defense Office Will Protect Planet Earth From Asteroid Collisions". Tech Times. Archived from the original on February 2, 2016. Retrieved January 18, 2016.
- Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. Archived from the original on February 18, 2021. Retrieved February 18, 2021. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ Tyler Austin Harper (December 22, 2021). "Silicon Valley Won't Save Us". Slate. Archived from the original on December 25, 2021. Retrieved December 25, 2021.
- ^ Kluger, Jeffrey (December 21, 2021). "Breaking Down the Mostly Real Science Behind Don't Look Up". Time. Archived from the original on December 25, 2021. Retrieved December 25, 2021.