Saving Earth . . . at an observatory near you
Warning the planet about impending Armageddon caused by a comet or asteroid hurtling in from space is a big job for a small observatory on the Shropshire border.
But The Spaceguard Centre near Knighton will be on the phone to Nasa if a threat from outer space is detected – because it is now officially the UK's only earthbound asteroid and comet tracking station.
The centre on Stonewall Hill became the National Near Earth Objects Information Centre last week.
Near earth objects are asteroids and comets that come close to, and sometimes collide with, the Earth.
Such an impact could potentially be devastating. A space-rock, probably a comet, is thought to have played a big part in wiping out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
Hollywood tackled the idea with disaster films such as Armageddon, in which a team of astronauts, led by Bruce Willis, attempt to divert the path of an asteroid the size of Texas. But in Shropshire, in place of Bruce, Spaceguard has director Jay Tate, who runs and lives at the centre with wife Anne.
Mr Tate said two events on the same day last February were a "classic example" of the need to monitor space.
About 1,600 people were injured in Chelyabinsk, Russia when a meteorite entered the earth's atmosphere on February 15. A 600kg piece of that meteorite has since gone on display in Chelyabinsk in the Southern Urals.
Meanwhile asteroid DA14, about 30 metres across, came within about 28,000km of the Earth.
Mr Tate said: "That was much bigger, and it's quite rare to get something like that. We had about a year's notice on that one. But if it had entered the atmosphere it would have taken out an area the size of Greater London, it'd take out a county.
"In the UK there was not a single word said, it was completely ignored by the UK government.
"Our task is to be a source of reliable, accurate information on the hazards for the public, press, media and decision makers. We've got the tracking side wrapped up.
"But in the UK there is absolutely no system set up, there is nobody to telephone. We deal directly with the US. If we wanted to get the word out, we'd talk to our favourite newspaper or television channel.
"The UK doesn't play any part in the global project so it's about time they did."
Spaceguard has taken over the title from the National Space Centre in Leicester, which pulled the plug on the project when government funding dried up this year.
"Since the country needs a centre like this, we decided we would take it on," Mr Tate said.
After asking the National Space Centre, UK Space Agency and others for approval, Mr Tate was overwhelmed by the response.
"There's a feeling the national centre is based where it should be," he said. "We get no extra funding for this, this is what we do anyway.
"We have reorganised so that we can act as an information centre, we've expanded our communication and monitoring systems.
"We're working with the European Space Agency on the Space Situation Awareness project and we've reinforced our links with Nasa over the last few months – they are aware we are it for the UK."
The Spaceguard Centre won the Europlanet Prize for public engagement and planetary science this year. It is also in the process of installing a 24in Smitt camera wide-field telescope so it can look for new hazards as well as track existing ones.
The telescope is currently in storage, while the money is raised for a dome to house it.
Opened in 2001 by Patrick Moore, the centre celebrated taking over as the UK's official NNEOIC with a gathering of special guests and students from University of South Wales.
Guests included Richard Miles and Roger Pickard from the British Asteroid Association, David Asher of the Armagh Observatory in Northern Ireland, Richard Tremain-Smith, chairman on the International Planetary Defence Conference, long-time supporter Lembit Opik and Knighton county councillor Peter Medlicott.
Near Earth Objects come in many shapes and sizes:
Comet a chunk of ice and rock that comes from the outer solar-system, far away from the sun. Comets usually have tails and come around on orbits that can be hundreds of years long.
Asteroid a solid space rock, usually found in a stable orbit in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Sometimes asteroids get bounced out of orbit towards Earth, and can be very large.
Meteoroid a small space rock, bigger than a grain of dust, but not big enough to be considered an asteroid in its own right. If it strikes the Earth it becomes a meteorite.
Meteor the streak of light seen when a small space rock enters the atmosphere and burns up. Often seen in showers of multiple meteors.
