Post by Christina on Mar 29, 2002 10:53:51 GMT -5
Just something from my in-box to share with you all
"Why We Fear Ourselves More than Asteroids
By Robert Roy Britt
space.com
26 March 2002
In the past six months, while the world focused on the continuing threat of global terrorism, as many as a dozen or more asteroids sneaked up on the Earth and zoomed by at distances just beyond the Moon's orbit and closer.
Most were never noticed. Earlier this month, stronomers did spot one. Four days after it flew by.
In discussing these events, experts describe a planet vulnerable to an unexpected attack that could, in an instant, wipe out a city or even destroy civilization. Some researchers go so far as to view the asteroid threat as an "international emergency situation," as Andy Smith of the Safety Research Institute in Albuquerque New Mexico said last week.
Yet as billions upon billions of dollars are spent to provide insurance against terrorism, astronomers were foiled in a recent attempt to encourage Australia to invest a comparatively paltry $1 million to scan the mostly unsurveyed southern skies for killer space rocks.
The reason is simple: The Dread Factor is not high enough.
Full story here:
www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/asteroid_fears_020326-1.html
"Why We Fear Ourselves More than Asteroids
By Robert Roy Britt
space.com
26 March 2002
In the past six months, while the world focused on the continuing threat of global terrorism, as many as a dozen or more asteroids sneaked up on the Earth and zoomed by at distances just beyond the Moon's orbit and closer.
Most were never noticed. Earlier this month, stronomers did spot one. Four days after it flew by.
In discussing these events, experts describe a planet vulnerable to an unexpected attack that could, in an instant, wipe out a city or even destroy civilization. Some researchers go so far as to view the asteroid threat as an "international emergency situation," as Andy Smith of the Safety Research Institute in Albuquerque New Mexico said last week.
Yet as billions upon billions of dollars are spent to provide insurance against terrorism, astronomers were foiled in a recent attempt to encourage Australia to invest a comparatively paltry $1 million to scan the mostly unsurveyed southern skies for killer space rocks.
The reason is simple: The Dread Factor is not high enough.
Full story here:
www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/asteroid_fears_020326-1.html