NASA wants to wrangle the space-faring stones and mine them for metals and water. The EU wants to hurl suicidal spacecraft at them. There's even a private enterprise that wants to deflect them with swarms of mini satellites and lasers.

None of this cuts the mustard in the eyes of the United Nations. The problem, it seems, is not that the UN deems these strategies unworthy. It's more a problem of duty. As it stands now, no entity, governmental or otherwise, has an explicit mandate to save our hides when doom starts raining down. Given the extinction-level scenario depicted in the image above, they'd all probably try to save the world. But they don't have to. Not good enough.

That's why the UN General Assembly has voted to approve a series of planet-saving, asteroid-deterring measures. Beginning with the creation of an “International Asteroid Warning Group,” the UN hopes, through committee, to save the world. Seriously. Dubbed the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, this UN group will coordinate a mission to hurl heavy spacecraft at asteroids, saving us all.