http://www.inform.umd.edu/News/Diamondback/archives/2003/12/12/news8.html
Looking out for nature's weapons of mass destruction University astronomer warns about danger from above By Jeremy Hsieh The Diamondback (University of Maryland) December 12, 2003 Spectacles like the Geminid meteor shower, which will peak tomorrow night, act as harmless, natural light shows for stargazers. It's the bigger things that have fallen - and will fall again - from the sky that worry Lucy McFadden, university associate professor of astronomy. McFadden was one of 13 space experts to sign a letter warning Congress in July to invest in the early detection of asteroids and comets passing near the Earth, also known as Near Earth Objects. "When I first started studying in this field 30 years ago ... we knew these things were passing near Earth, but we didn't really appreciate their threat," McFadden said. The 1994 impact of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet on Jupiter served as a wake-up call to space scientists around the world. The letter described the impact of the explosion as being as powerful as a billion megatons of TNT. In the aftermath, a dust cloud larger than the size of Earth swelled in Jupiter's atmosphere. "It sort of dawned on us that this happens," McFadden said. The letter to Congress is one of the latest steps space scientists have taken to increase awareness of the extraterrestrial threat. McFadden said officials should prepare for an NEO impact in the same ways they prepare for other disasters. "It's just adding to our list of natural disasters," McFadden said. And such a disaster is a statistical inevitability. "We cannot rely on statistics alone to protect us from catastrophe; such a strategy is like refusing to buy fire insurance because blazes are infrequent," the letter's authors wrote. "Our country simply cannot afford to wait for the first modern occurrence of a devastating NEO impact before taking steps to adequately address this threat. "If space research has taught us anything, it is the certainty that an asteroid or comet will hit Earth again," the letter's authors wrote. "Impacts are common events in Earth's history: Scientists have found more than 150 large impact craters on our planet's surface. Were it not for Earth's oceans and geological forces such as erosion and plate tectonics, the planet's impact scars would be as plain as those visible on the moon." But why appeal to the U.S. government to save the world? "There's the problem," McFadden said. "There's no structure [for dealing with planetary defense]. Whose responsibility is it to protect the planet? NASA is an exploration agency. [The Federal Emergency Management Agency] is for helping people after the fact." The decision to appeal to Congress to invest in NEO precautions was somewhat arbitrary, stemming from American ethos, McFadden said. The letter's signatories focused their letter on stepping up the monitoring of space for NEOs, but did not offer concrete solutions for destroying or deflecting potential NEOs detected on a collision course with Earth. "Do I think it's worth spending billions of dollars on designing something [to destroy or deflect NEOs]?" McFadden asked, rhetorically. "Eh. I'd rather explore the solar system." The full contents of the letter are available at http://www.congressneoaction.org. ______________________________________________ Meteorite-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
