Team picked to save Earth from asteroids

Three experts have been appointed to a "near-earth object" task force to assess the potential danger to the earth from asteroid strikes, the government announced this week.

The committee will be chaired by Harry Atkinson, an independent consultant and contributor to the 1998 North report for the University of Oxford. He was chairman of the council of the European Space Agency and director of the Science and Engineering Research Council.

The other members will be David A. Williams, Perren professor of astronomy at University College, London and Sir Crispin Tickell (below), a former warden of Green College, Oxford.