At 08:42 AM 6/21/02, you wrote: >At 10:28 AM 6/21/02 +0200, M. Malmkvist wrote: >>Gee, there went a billion people. >>Probably would have been the first time in recorded history that an asteriod >>triggered a regional thermo nuclear war :o| >> >>M. Malmkvist > >That's what I was wondering about/fearing. I suspect if anyone took to >time to look, they could tell the difference in an impact and a nuclear >device... but would anyone take the time? Does anyone know if there are >any standing policies on this kind of incident? How about any sci-fi >dealing with it? > >Sean
The problem with waiting for confirmation (assuming the incoming body had not been spotted before impact, which is the typical case with a near-miss by a NEO because asteroids are usually discovered by accident by making a trail on a photograph made for another purpose, and such an asteroid is not going to make a trail because it is coming straight at us) is that the flight time of an ICBM over the pole from the former USSR to the US (or vice versa) is well under half an hour. Given the scenario I describe to my students--the meteoroid arrives 50-odd years after Tunguska, during the height of the Cold War, and is displaced a bit to the west of Tunguska (i.e., it explodes over Moscow or maybe over a Soviet military installation)--how long *could* the surviving Soviet leaders wait before acting on the seemingly obvious assumption that they had just witnessed the first hit from a US first strike? How long could the US leaders of the period have waited to see if there were any more missiles coming if the meteoroid had exploded over, say, New York City? Someone better order the extra-large tube of Preparation A . . . -- Ronn! :) Ronn Blankenship Instructor of Astronomy/Planetary Science University of Montevallo Montevallo, AL Disclaimer: Unless specifically stated otherwise, any opinions contained herein are the personal opinions of the author and do not represent the official position of the University of Montevallo.
