Hi Chris & Don,

There are about 1000 known near earth asteriods that have been plotted and they know their path around the solar system. However, there are a lot more out there that they don't know about.

After the dramatic impact of 21 asteroids on Jupiter the government thought there should be more emphasis placed on discovering these and provided one million dollars toward the effort.

While one of those babies can wreak havoc on any sector of our globe or spell instant winter for the entire planet, they are provided with the sum that is equal to one or possibly two years of research at Parkfield.

Thank goodness for amateurs. They discover more near Earth objects than the professionals simply because there are more of them. Just think, the number of professionals looking for near Earth objects equals the same number of people working at one McDonalds restaurant. That's a scary thought.

Petra