NASA to protect earth from potential hazards

New Delhi: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has announced a new program called the Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO), which will coordinate NASA's efforts for detecting and tracking Near Earth Objects (NEOs) and protect the earth from potential hazards.

The United States government agency, which is responsible for the civilian space program as well as aeronautics and aerospace research, stated that they do have an asteroid impact and deflection mission concept in the works with the European Space Agency, Tech Crunch reported.

The PDCO has two significant functions. It is responsible for finding and characterizing NEOs and also in charge of coordinating emergency efforts with other agencies and governments if a large NEO was predicted to impact the earth.