DistantNews
Support us
NASA Expert Warns Humanity 'Must Prepare' for Future Asteroid Impacts
🇨🇱 Chile /Health & Science

NASA Expert Warns Humanity 'Must Prepare' for Future Asteroid Impacts

From Cooperativa · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Named sources Context piece
  • NASA expert Humberto Campins warns that while individuals face no immediate threat, human civilization must prepare for future asteroid impacts.
  • He emphasized that large impacts, similar to the one that wiped out dinosaurs, are inevitable without developing asteroid deflection technologies.
  • Campins highlighted NASA's decades-long effort in coordinating global asteroid detection and tracking to implement planetary defense strategies.

Humberto Campins, a NASA asteroid expert, has issued a stark warning: humanity must prepare for future asteroid impacts, even though individuals face no immediate personal danger. Speaking at the "The Many Pathways to Spaces" congress in Oviedo, Spain, Campins stressed that while the chances of an asteroid hitting Earth during a single person's lifetime are very low, "great impacts" are "inevitable" for civilization if proactive measures are not taken.

as individuals do not have anything to worry about

— Humberto CampinsCampins clarified that while individuals face no immediate threat from an asteroid impact, the broader implications for civilization are significant.

Campins explained that these large-scale impacts, such as the one that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs, can be averted only if humanity develops the necessary techniques, technologies, and action plans to deflect incoming asteroids. He clarified that currently, no known asteroids pose an imminent threat to the planet. However, he insisted on the critical importance of "planetary defense" for the long-term survival of human civilization.

human civilization does have to prepare

— Humberto CampinsCampins emphasized the necessity for collective action and preparation by human civilization in the face of potential asteroid threats.

The expert detailed NASA's long-standing commitment to this issue, noting that the agency "managed to convince the U.S. government that a threat existed" at least "three or four decades ago." Since then, NASA has been coordinating a global network of telescopes and scientists. This network is dedicated to discovering asteroids and assessing their trajectories using the Torino Scale, a probability model, to determine potential risks to Earth.

will happen again

— Humberto CampinsCampins stated that asteroid impacts are not a matter of if, but when, underscoring the inevitability of future events.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Cooperativa in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

More Stories

From Our Blog