A draft UN treaty to determine what would have to be done if a giant asteroid was on a collision course with Earth is to be drawn up this year.
The document would set out global policies including who should be in charge of plans to deflect any object.
It is the brainchild of the Association of Space Explorers, a professional body for astronauts and cosmonauts.
At the moment, Nasa is monitoring 127 near-Earth objects (NEO) that have a possibility of hitting the Earth.
The association has asked a group of scientists, lawyers, diplomats and insurance experts to draw up the recommendations.
Comment: Where's Bruce Willis when we need him!
Newark - Something happened at around 9 p.m. Wednesday that a lot of people heard.
But nobody seems to have any idea what it was.
What it was, though, might forever remain a mystery.
It was a loud bang, something loud enough to be heard across southern and central Ohio, and loud enough to make small objects move in houses. Reports have rolled into The Advocate from Hanover to Heath, from Buckeye Lake to Granville, and NBC4 heard reports from Muskingum, Fairfield and Pickaway counties.
Rumors range from an earthquake to a meteor strike, a sonic boom to something ice-related.
Was it simply falling ice? That's what many, including NBC4's Jym Ganahl, believe. But many also went outside to check because it sounded like their houses had been hit.
NEWARK - Something happened at around 9 p.m. Wednesday that a lot of people heard, or even felt.
What it was, though, might forever remain a mystery.
"It" was a loud bang, something loud enough to be heard across southern and central Ohio, and loud enough to make small objects move in houses. Reports have rolled into The Advocate from Hanover to Heath, from Buckeye Lake to Granville, and NBC4 heard reports from Muskingum, Fairfield and Pickaway counties.
Comment: Reports from Ohio to New Jersey. The night of the Super Bowl, there were reports of another from Minnesota down to Missouri and east into Illinois and Ohio.
Something's happening, and it is happening with greater frequency. Last week
another was spotted in Turkey and one in the UK....
Nervous, anyone?
A 'METEORITE' seen flashing through the sky before destroying a tree in Mexborough turned out to be a meteor-wrong. Or did it?
Denaby student Shane McGarrigle and two friends turned detective after they saw a flash in the sky and heard a huge bang as they walked near Ferryboat bridge last Wednesday night.
DPAThu, 08 Feb 2007 17:55 UTC
Three people were killed and four injured in a mysterious blast in a village in India's northern Rajasthan state Thursday that villagers claim was caused by a meteorite, news reports said.
Rachel Pegg
The ArgusWed, 07 Feb 2007 09:23 UTC
A meteor has been spotted falling to the Earth.
The shooting star was engulfed in bright flames as it shot towards the ground over Hangleton, Hove, at about 8.15pm yesterday.
Not everybody was watching the Superbowl last night, some Iowans were watching mysterious lights in the sky. The Iowa State Patrol got about a hundred calls from people who saw bright orange or red flashes in the southern sky between seven and eight P.M.
Some people thought it may've been an aircraft on fire, but none are missing. Experts say it may've been meteors but there's no known major meteor shower underway right now. Doug Rudd, of the Des Moines Astronomical Society, says he thinks it was "space debris, some satellite or a rocket booster that was coming back through the atmosphere and breaking up."
Comment: We have run a couple of other articles about this particular fireball. This article has, however, some classic rationalizations: there is no known major meteor shower underway at the moment, and so it must be space debris... except that ""The amount of data that's available to us to track those things is quite voluminous and when something like this does occur, it really does take people off guard."
We bet.
Notice they are saying no "major" meteor shower underway, which should give some indication as to the spectacular show people saw on Sunday night.
And, somehow, we have the feeling that it is only going to get worse. People are going to be caught more and more off guard... and not from space debris.
St. Louis - Dozens of people in Missouri and southern Illinois reported seeing flaming objects falling from the sky Sunday evening.
People reported small objects that looked like bright lights or something burning, with flaming tails behind some of them, said Ken Tretter of Missouri State Highway Patrol in St. Louis.
He said the reports came in from a widespread area, including St. Louis, Cape Girardeau and Pettis County in Missouri and near Alton and Bunker Hill in Illinois.
A large ball of fire spotted in the sky at 7:52 p.m. Sunday was a meteor, according to the Winnebago County Sheriff 's Department.
An individual in the area of State Highway 44, south of Oshkosh, spotted a fireball the "size of an airplane" in the sky, Sgt. Gordon Ledioyt said. Other calls followed.
VoicesSun, 04 Feb 2007 11:16 UTC
POLICE were inundated with calls from scores of people from Didim to Bodrum after they heard a big bang and a flash of light across the skies.
Despite officers being unable to explain the flashing green, yellow and red lights, Voices has solved the phenomena.
It was not a UFO but a meteorite which crash through the earth's atmosphere and landed in Yeşilkent.
Comment: Where's Bruce Willis when we need him!