Earth could be blindsided by asteroids, panel warns

August 13, 2009 | Source: NewScientist Space

Existing sky surveys miss many asteroids smaller than 1 kilometer across, leaving the door open to damaging impacts on Earth, blasting huge amounts of sunlight-blocking dust into Earth’s atmosphere in an impact and causing devastating climate change with little or no warning, a panel of scientists reports.

Solution: funding for more powerful telescopes for asteroid hunting.