In late December 2004, the world was riveted by the horrible news coming from the Indian Ocean tsunami. And a lot of people missed the news that – for a few days at least – there was a reasonable chance that an asteroid called Apophis was poised to devastate even more of the globe in the year 2029.

Later calculations showed that Apophis will miss Earth that year, but a slim chance remains it could hit in 2036. And even though that probability is expected to go away with further studies, politicians and governments ought to sit up and take notice, says Rusty Schweickart.

Schweickart is an Apollo astronaut and a key player in the Association of Space Explorers, which is trying to get the United Nations to take a leading role in figuring out who should lead in deflecting any potential asteroid threat, and when. At the AAAS meeting today, Schweickart showed a map of the possible places on the globe that Apophis might still hit in 2036. The potential impact area extends in a line arcing from Kazakhstan over east Asia, extending along the Aleutian islands and down the Pacific, crossing Central America on the northern border of Costa Rica and eventually petering out in the Atlantic just off Africa.

The map vividly illustrates how many countries will be panicking if an asteroid is indeed ever found that looks like it will definitely hit. Schweickart will be speaking to the UN committee on the peaceful uses of outer space next week, in an effort to get some protocols in place. It’s not simple to figure out who ought to do what in the face of a planetary catastrophe, he notes. Within the US, agencies such as Homeland Security and FEMA are typically charged with public safety.

“And do you really want FEMA in charge of this??” he asked.