Planetary Defense Coordination Office

In 2005, the U.S. Congress passed the NASA Authorization Act, which, in part, tasked NASA with finding and cataloguing at least 90% of all near-Earth objects that are 140 meters or larger by 2020.{{cite news |author1=Bromwich |first=Jonah Engel |date=April 19, 2017 |title=Asteroid Misses Earth Narrowly, by Cosmic Standards |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/19/science/asteroid-earth-nasa.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211225020938/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/19/science/asteroid-earth-nasa.html |archive-date=December 25, 2021 |access-date=December 25, 2021 |work=The New York Times}} However, that goal was clearly not being met by NASA's Near Earth Object Observations Program, which a 2014 report by the NASA Office of Inspector General pointed out.{{cite book |last1=Martin |first1=Paul K. |title=NASA's Efforts to Identify Near-Earth Objects and Mitigate Hazards |date=September 15, 2014 |publisher=NASA Office of Inspector General |url=https://oig.nasa.gov/audits/reports/FY14/IG-14-030.pdf |access-date=December 25, 2021 |archive-date=December 22, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211222201416/https://oig.nasa.gov/audits/reports/FY14/IG-14-030.pdf |url-status=live }} In June 2015, NASA and National Nuclear Security Administration of the U.S. Department of Energy, which had been studying impact events on their own, signed an agreement to work in cooperation.{{cite news |last1=Broad |first1=William J. |title=Agencies, Hoping to Deflect Comets and Asteroids, Step Up Earth Defense |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/19/science/agencies-make-plans-to-step-up-planetary-defense.html |access-date=December 25, 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=June 18, 2015 |archive-date=December 25, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211225020936/https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/19/science/agencies-make-plans-to-step-up-planetary-defense.html |url-status=live }}

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.{{cite web |url=https://www.space.com/defending-earth-asteroids-nasa-lindley-johnson-interview |title=Defending Earth against dangerous asteroids: Q&A with NASA's Lindley Johnson |first=Leonard |last=David |date=January 5, 2021 |work=Space.com |access-date=October 5, 2021 |archive-date=October 5, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211005043438/https://www.space.com/defending-earth-asteroids-nasa-lindley-johnson-interview |url-status=live }} 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.{{cite web |title=Planetary Defense Coordination Office |url=https://www.nasa.gov/planetarydefense/overview |work=NASA |date=December 22, 2015 |access-date=January 14, 2016 |archive-date=July 28, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220728144830/https://www.nasa.gov/planetarydefense/overview/ |url-status=live }} {{PD-notice}}{{cite news |title=NASA is opening a new office for planetary defense |url=http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/220745-nasa-is-opening-a-new-office-for-planetary-defense |access-date=January 14, 2016 |work=ExtremeTech |first=Graham |last=Templeton |date=January 12, 2016 |archive-date=July 6, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170706223602/https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/220745-nasa-is-opening-a-new-office-for-planetary-defense |url-status=live }}

It has been a part of several key NASA missions, including OSIRIS-REx,{{cite web |title=OSIRIS-REx |url=https://www.nasa.gov/osiris-rex |website=NASA |access-date=December 25, 2021 |date=April 14, 2021 |archive-date=July 15, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220715120333/https://www.nasa.gov/osiris-rex/ |url-status=live }} 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 would continue to use the polar orbiting infrared telescope NEOWISE, decommissioned in August 2024, to detect any potentially hazardous objects.{{cite news |title=This Is How NASA's Planetary Defense Office Will Protect Planet Earth From Asteroid Collisions |url=http://www.techtimes.com/articles/124600/20160116/this-is-how-nasas-planetary-defense-office-will-protect-planet-earth-from-asteroid-collisions.htm |access-date=January 18, 2016 |work=Tech Times |first=Angela |last=Laguipo |date=January 16, 2016 |archive-date=February 2, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160202022212/http://www.techtimes.com/articles/124600/20160116/this-is-how-nasas-planetary-defense-office-will-protect-planet-earth-from-asteroid-collisions.htm |url-status=live }}

Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), a joint project between NASA and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, is the first planetary defense mission of NASA.{{cite web |url=https://dart.jhuapl.edu/ |title=Double Asteroid Redirection Test |access-date=February 18, 2021 |work=Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory |archive-date=February 18, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210218080040/https://dart.jhuapl.edu/ |url-status=live }} {{PD-notice}} In November 2021, the DART spacecraft was launched with the goal of seeing if it could "alter an asteroid's path, a technique that may be used to defend the planet in the future".{{cite news |last1=Roulette |first1=Joey |title=NASA Launches New Mission: Crash Into Asteroid, Defend Planet Earth |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/24/science/nasa-dart-mission-asteroid.html |access-date=December 25, 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=November 24, 2021 |archive-date=June 10, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220610095507/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/24/science/nasa-dart-mission-asteroid.html |url-status=live }} The attempt was successful.

The movie Deep Impact and Armageddon (1998 film) tell a fictional story of an asteroid impact event and efforts to avert it through planetary defense operations.

The 2021 movie Don't Look Up is about a "planet killer" comet, in which the Planetary Defense Officer is played by Rob Morgan.{{cite news |author1=Harper |first=Tyler Austin |date=December 22, 2021 |title=Silicon Valley Won't Save Us |url=https://slate.com/technology/2021/12/dont-look-up-netflix-climate-change-allegory.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211225020330/https://slate.com/technology/2021/12/dont-look-up-netflix-climate-change-allegory.html |archive-date=December 25, 2021 |access-date=December 25, 2021 |work=Slate}} PDCO chief Lindley Johnson vetted an early draft of the screenplay over two years before the film's 2021 release.{{cite magazine |last1=Kluger |first1=Jeffrey |title=Breaking Down the Mostly Real Science Behind Don't Look Up |url=https://time.com/6130579/dont-look-up-science/ |access-date=December 25, 2021 |magazine=Time |date=December 21, 2021 |archive-date=December 25, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211225020330/https://time.com/6130579/dont-look-up-science/ |url-status=live }}

{{Portal|Spaceflight}}

• Asteroid impact avoidance
• Don't Look Up (2021 film)
• Double Asteroid Redirection Test
• Impact event
• Spaceguard

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.planetary.org/multimedia/planetary-radio/show/2016/0201-lindley-fast-pdco.html NASA’s New Planetary Defense Office], planetary.org
• https://www.nasa.gov/specials/pdco/index.html, {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220928032325/https://www.nasa.gov/specials/pdco/index.html |date=September 28, 2022 }}

{{Planetary defense}}

Category:Planetary defense organizations

Category:NASA