Fewer people are searching for near-Earth asteroids, astronomer David Morrison said in the 1990s, than work a shift in a small McDonalds. But that group — a little larger now — has over the past two decades discovered a host of happily harmless rocks, and in doing so reduced the risk of an unknown asteroid blighting civilization (see page 1178). David Chandler puts together the story in the words of those who watched, and those who watched the watchers.
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Chandler, D. Planetary science: The burger bar that saved the world. Nature 453, 1164–1168 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/4531164a
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/4531164a
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