Wednesday, 9 February, 2000, 12:18 GMT
Earth survives asteroid
'threat'
from:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_636000/636481.stm
For the fifth time in two years, a
report of an Earth-threatening
asteroid was proven wrong within
days of being announced.
The asteroid was stated to be on a
possible collision course with the
Earth with the impact date set for
2022. It rapidly became clear that the
asteroid would miss the planet by
millions of kilometres.
Some scientists fear the public may
become desensitised to the warnings.
"Someday, we're going to find
something that will have a 1 in 1,000
or 1 in 100 chance of impacting
Earth," said James Scotti, who
discovered the asteroid last month at
Kitt Peak National Observatory.
"When that happens, I'd rather us be
taken seriously."
One in a million
Dr Scotti did not know about the
celestial rock's possible trajectory
until Monday, when Italian researcher
Andrea Milani posted an internet
message warning of a 1 in a million
chance of a collision and asking other
astronomers to track it carefully.
A day later, Dr Milani announced that
the new observations allowed him to
make more precise calculations. The
asteroid, named 2000 BF19, would
come no closer than nine million
kilometres (5.6 million miles) to Earth
over the next 50 years, he said.
"This change is the result of
computation I did today from the
response of my call to arms
yesterday," Dr Milani said. He added
that it had taken about four hours to
compute the course using the new
observations from around the world.
The object also was being followed at
the Near Earth Object Program at the
Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, but
it quickly became apparent that the
800-metre- (half-mile-) wide rock
posed no real threat. The laboratory
has never issued an asteroid collision
warning.
"In almost all of the five cases, we're
the ones who came back and said it
won't happen," said the program's
manager, Donald Yeomans. "We're
the nay-sayers."
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[U A S R]> UFO's-, ALIEN's-, SPACE- RESEARCH MAILING LIST <[U A S R]
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Wednesday, 9 February, 2000, 12:18 GMT
Earth survives asteroid
'threat'
from:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_636000/636481.stm
For the fifth time in two years, a
report of an Earth-threatening
asteroid was proven wrong within
days of being announced.
The asteroid was stated to be on a
possible collision course with the
Earth with the impact date set for
2022. It rapidly became clear that the
asteroid would miss the planet by
millions of kilometres.
Some scientists fear the public may
become desensitised to the warnings.
"Someday, we're going to find
something that will have a 1 in 1,000
or 1 in 100 chance of impacting
Earth," said James Scotti, who
discovered the asteroid last month at
Kitt Peak National Observatory.
"When that happens, I'd rather us be
taken seriously."
One in a million
Dr Scotti did not know about the
celestial rock's possible trajectory
until Monday, when Italian researcher
Andrea Milani posted an internet
message warning of a 1 in a million
chance of a collision and asking other
astronomers to track it carefully.
A day later, Dr Milani announced that
the new observations allowed him to
make more precise calculations. The
asteroid, named 2000 BF19, would
come no closer than nine million
kilometres (5.6 million miles) to Earth
over the next 50 years, he said.
"This change is the result of
computation I did today from the
response of my call to arms
yesterday," Dr Milani said. He added
that it had taken about four hours to
compute the course using the new
observations from around the world.
The object also was being followed at
the Near Earth Object Program at the
Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, but
it quickly became apparent that the
800-metre- (half-mile-) wide rock
posed no real threat. The laboratory
has never issued an asteroid collision
warning.
"In almost all of the five cases, we're
the ones who came back and said it
won't happen," said the program's
manager, Donald Yeomans. "We're
the nay-sayers."
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