I’m not sure what their interest is in asteroids, but Broken Bells (singer James Mercer and producer Danger Mouse) has committed proceeds from their upcoming tour to a project designed to protect the Earth from asteroids. The B612 Foundation’s Sentinel Project will receive a dollar from each ticket sold for the band’s US west coast tour.
The privately funded Sentinel Project is slated to build a telescope (completion date 2018) that will track up to 90 percent of asteroids large enough to significantly damage the Earth should they strike its surface. Representatives of the project predict that the telescope will find more than 20,000 asteroids in its first month of operations, with over 500,000 near-earth asteroids discovered by the end of its mission.
In between two shows at Coachchella, the Broken Bells will also put on a special show at the Fonda Theater in Los Angeles on April 15 to benefit the fund, with an afterparty on the roof of the theater. NASA astronomers from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory will set up telescopes for the viewing pleasure of the guests.
Perhaps the band could donate more of their tour proceeds, and encourage other bands to do the same, so someone could just build a giant asteroid blaster, like in that ’80s arcade game. That would really keep the Earth safe!
