"Two asteroids will zip close by the Earth Wednesday and may be visible in telescopes as they zip between our planet and the orbit of the moon."
I know it might be a bit early to dip into the rich history that is the Annoying Joe, but asteroids scare the bajeezus out of me, and I thought it would be a could time to re-post one of my earlier and scarier posts....
Killer Asteroids!
This from the AP...
"NASA is charged with spotting most of the asteroids that pose a threat to Earth but doesn't have the money to complete the job, a federal report says. That's because even though Congress assigned the space agency that mission four years ago, it never gave NASA the money to build the necessary telescopes..."
Huh?
"It may never get the money, said John Logsdon, a space policy professor at George Washington University."
Why Not?
'"The program is a little bit of a lame duck," Logsdon said. There is not a big enough group pushing for the money...'
Well, why would there be?
"NASA estimates that there are about 20,000 asteroids and comets in our solar system that are potential threats. They are larger than 460 feet in diameter...Rocks between 460 feet and 3,280 feet in diameter can devastate an entire region"
Oh. Anything else?
"Objects bigger than that are even more threatening"[this is actual AP text.]
You don't Say. So, let me get this straight, encapsulate, if you will. There are thousands of threats to civilization as we know it hurtling through space. We have, for the first time in the history of history the means to detect these threats and potentially avert them, but we don't have the money.
Interesting....so in this case, knowledge is NOT power. It is just the ability to fully understand the (potential) coming of the end. Which by the way, has plagued human thought for centuries, with or without science.
ReplyDeleteWell, maybe it is power. There's just oodles of theories that address the ability to nudge a potentially harmful asteroid out of the way, given enough warning. Trust me, my chicken-little complex and I have done our homework.
ReplyDeletehahaha....touché! Although, something tells me life was much easier before the telescope! hahaha
ReplyDeleteTrue, we don't have the money. That's because we spend too much time/resources sticking our noses in other countries' business. Think of all the money we'd have if Operation Iraqi Freedom hadn't happened. hmmmm....pointless war vs. saving mankind. Nah....there is no money (or oil) in humanity.
ReplyDeleteIt should scare "the Bajeezus" out of everyone.
ReplyDeleteRemember when Astroids was just an Atari game??
ReplyDeleteTell that to the dinosaurs
ReplyDeleteLOL! Point well taken. But why am I laughing? That is really kind of scary....
ReplyDelete