From: Amara Graps (amara@amara.com)
Date: Sun Sep 08 2002 - 01:30:02 MDT
Extropes,
News like the below is a bit frustrating, from several perspectives.
First, the 'probability' and numbers is under active debate. Second,
there is not an 'organized effort' as this article states, in the
U.S. to find and search for near earth objects (it's not
clear that one is needed, either!).
To correct this last point about lack of organized effort, Duncan
Steel last month at the Asteroid Comets and Meteors meeting proposed
a press announcement which he wanted to call the "Berlin
Declaration", that stated, among many items, that no organized
telescope searches exist for such a task, as say many media reports.
He thought it was very misleading for the public to see statements
like this, and I agree. But the rest of his Declaration was very
controversial at the meeting, and since I've not seen yet any
'Berlin Declaration', maybe it was withdrawn. The experts in the
field don't all agree, and that's probably the best sign that active
work is in progress.
I'm not working in the Near Earth Objects area, but if you want to
learn more numbers, then please gather information from different
sources. In particular, I suggest looking at the papers from here:
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-abs_connect?db_key=AST&sim_query=YES&aut_xct=NO&aut_logic=OR&obj_logic=OR&author=Bottke%2C+W.&object=&start_mon=01&start_year=1999&end_mon=&end_year=&ttl_logic=OR&title=&txt_logic=OR&text=&nr_to_return=100&start_nr=1&start_e&ref_stems=&data_and=ALL&group_and=ALL&sort=SCORE&aut_syn=YES&ttl_syn=YES&txt_syn=YES&aut_wt=1.0&obj_wt=1.0&ttl_wt=0.3&txt_wt=3.0&aut_wgt=YES&obj_wgt=YES&ttl_wgt=YES&txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1
with 'Near Earth' (or NEOs) in the title).
Amara
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http://europe.cnn.com/2002/TECH/space/09/07/asteroid.threat.ap/index.html
Asteroid threat to Earth remote, but real
WASHINGTON (AP) --A space rock big enough to cause widespread damage
and death will hit the Earth only about once every 1,000 years, but
experts say the destruction would be so extreme that nations should
develop a joint defense against asteroids.
Participants at a NASA-sponsored conference on the hazards of comets
and asteroids smashing into Earth estimated Friday that the planet
probably would be hit about once each millennium by a space rock big
enough to release about 10 megatons of explosive energy.
Such a rock, estimated at 180 feet across, scorched through the
atmosphere over Tunguska in Siberia in 1908 and flattened trees
across 800 square miles of forest land. No crater was found and
experts believe the damage came from atmospheric shock.
(see the rest of the article)
--
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Amara Graps, PhD email: amara@amara.com
Computational Physics vita: ftp://ftp.amara.com/pub/resume.txt
Multiplex Answers URL: http://www.amara.com/
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"I'm just moving clouds today - tomorrow I'll try mountains."
--Ashleigh Brilliant
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