From: Amara Graps (Amara.Graps@mpi-hd.mpg.de)
Date: Tue Mar 26 2002 - 09:24:19 MST
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/asteroid_fears_020326-1.html
Why We Fear Ourselves More than Asteroids
By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer
posted: 07:00 am ET
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,
astronomers did spot one. Four days after it flew by.
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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 scientists were practically laughed at on television by the
science minister of Australia who, like much of the world's public,
simply does not take the threat of asteroids seriously.
The reason is simple: The Dread Factor is not high enough.
Paul Slovic, author of "The Perception of Risk" (Earthscan, 2000),
says most people are far more worried over what humans and technology
can do to them than they are about natural disasters. While
terrorism, chemical spills and nuclear accidents are awarded high
"Dread Factor" marks by most people, asteroids, earthquakes and
hurricanes rate low.
Stealth approach
On March 8, a hunk of stone and metal about the size of an 18-story
building, made its closest approach to Earth, passing roughly 298,400
miles (480,200 kilometers) from the planet, just a bit farther out
than the Moon, but a little too close for comfort for most
astronomers.
(see article for the rest of the story)
--
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Amara Graps, PhD | Max-Planck-Institut fuer Kernphysik
Heidelberg Cosmic Dust Group | Saupfercheckweg 1
+49-6221-516-543 | 69117 Heidelberg, GERMANY
Amara.Graps@mpi-hd.mpg.de * http://www.mpi-hd.mpg.de/dustgroup/~graps
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"Never fight an inanimate object." - P. J. O'Rourke
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