SCIENCE SPACE

The Man Who Guards The Planet

Space is full of potential killer asteroids. Meet the astronomer who 

stands between you and them

Cosmic defender Don Yeomans leads the Near Earth Object Program Office at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

You don’t want Don Yeomans’ job, no matter how appealing it seems. He’s an astronomer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., which is awfully cool. And he’s one of the lab’s top guys, which is even better. The problem with Yeomans’ job is the pressure. He is never really off duty, and his work is very straightforward: he guards the planet. 

Really. If morning dawns in your part of the world and all is still well, it’s on Yeomans’ watch. If your city or entire country is wiped out tomorrow, well, there’s a case to be made that it’s on Yeomans’ head.

Yeomans leads JPL’s prosaically named Near Earth Object Program Office, charged with the mission of…

This appears in the June 9, 2014 issue of TIME.