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在美国的弗吉尼亚州，一颗行星就这样撞上一名医生办公室的屋顶，幸运的是没人受伤。这给我们留下无尽遐想……如果在不久后的某天，我们的的地球被庞大的未知行星撞上，这将会是怎样的未来？
MADELEINE BRAND, host:
A meteorite crashed through the roof of a doctor"s office in Virginia earlier this week. No one was hurt. Still, it"s a reminder of the space rocks that bombard our planet. They are usually really tiny. A few years ago, Congress told NASA to conduct a search for the big ones that might cause serious damage if they hit Earth.
But as we hear from NPR"s Nell Greenfieldboyce, a new report says there is no way NASA will meet its deadline.
NELL GREENFIELDBOYCE: Congress wants NASA to be looking for icy comets and rocky asteroids close to earth that are bigger than about 450 feet across -bigger than, say, a football field. NASA is supposed to find 90 percent of them by the year 2020, but here is the problem.
Professor MICHAEL A"HEARN (University of Maryland): No matter what we do, it"s now too late to meet the 2020 deadline that Congress set four or five years ago.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: Michael A"Hearn is an expert on comets and asteroids at the University of Maryland. He served on a National Research Council committee that"s just put out a new report called, Defending Planet Earth. He says Congress didn"t give NASA any special funding for the search, and the agency didn"t ask for any.
Prof. A"HEARN: If you"ve set a deadline and then don"t fund it, it"s not going to happen.
(Soundbite of laughter)
GREENFIELDBOYCE: He says NASA could finish the job close to the deadline if it built and launched a new space telescope. Or, it could construct a new ground-based telescope and reach the goal by 2030. But either way, this would cost money.
Prof. A"HEARN: You"re talking about a billion dollars over 20 years. That"s $50 million a year.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: Far more than the $4 million a year that NASA currently spends. He says how much the government wants to devote to these searches is fundamentally a political decision. A huge impact that could wipe out humanity comes along only once in a hundred million years. But a strike that could potentially flatten, say, a city might occur as often as once every few centuries. A NASA official said the agency has just received the new report and it will take a couple of months to study it and respond to the committee.
Nell Greenfieldboyce, NPR News.
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