Donald K. Yeomans is a Senior Research Scientist, Supervisor of the Solar System Dynamics Group, and Manager of the Near-Earth Object Program Office at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. His group is responsible for providing position predictions for the solar system’s planets, natural satellites, comets and asteroids. His group provides impact probabilities for future Earth encounters.

In Armageddon, starring Bruce Willis, the threatening NEO is an asteroid “the size of Texas,” which is about a million times larger than any Earth crossing asteroid, but the warning time is just a few weeks. Instead of entrusting planetary defense to trained astronauts or the military, a bunch of amateurs is recruited, given a week of training, and blasted off in two Space Shuttles to intercept the asteroid. Apparently no one told the producers that the Shuttle is limited to low Earth orbits. The job of the astronauts is to drill down about 200 m and plant nuclear explosives. The asteroid set for Armageddon does not look at all like an asteroid, and strangely the hole they drill glows orange.

Based on technical accuracy, NASA ranked Armageddon the worst film representing the threat of cosmic impact. On the other hand, movies such as Armageddon may do more to publicize impact hazard than all previous media coverage taken together. What effect do less-than-technically accurate films have on the public’s perception of science?