Another Close Call

Our little planet travels through the universe, littered with dangerous moving objects. Our atmosphere protects us from possible rock invaders and burns them up on impact. Many of these objects are pretty small and we see them as shooting stars as the atmosphere takes care of business.

However, know and then an Asteroid of significance comes to our attention. One such Asteroid is 2012 BX34 (Not the most creative name..but still) passed our planet at a distance of 60 000KM (37 300 Miles). The moon is some 384 633KM (239 000 Miles) away. So in space terms 60 000KM is pretty close. In fact, this Asteroid makes it into the top 20 near earth misses.

What is of little comfort is Asteroids are often only discovered when they are very close- in this case, on the 25th of January 2012-2 days before it tried to sneak passed us.
Luckily for us, this one was roughly the size of 'a school bus' ( between 6-19m in diameter) and thus posed no threat to existence on earth.  In 2011, a similar sized Asteroid, 2011 MD, passed us at 12 200KM ( 7 600 Miles).

And here is the worrying bit of news- In September 2011, The NEOWISE Project announced that it had completed it's task of mapping near Earth objects-consisting of Comets, Asteroids and Meteoroids .
The Wide Field  Infrared Project (Or WISE) identified about 19 500 medium sized Near Earth Objects. Now, considering these objects would be enough to obliterate a city on impact, this is not comforting. And if you are not trembling yet, it is estimated that they have only discovered 90%- which leaves 10% secretly stalking us.
Of the bodies they are tracking, only , yes ONLY (like this is not enough) 911 (ironic number) are considered 'Killer' Asteroids- and by definition, Killer would be defined as large enough to wipe out large portions or all life on earth! Note, the Chicxulub meteorite had a diameter of 177 KM (or 110 Miles)- and this friendly fellow is thought to have snuffed out the Dinosaurs some 65 Million years ago.

Astronomers tell us the odds of a large strike are very remote, as they have pretty much mapped the massive bodies' orbits. The smaller objects are more difficult to predict as their paths alter and we often do not pick them up in time. Consider that an object measuring 200 Meters in diameter striking the Atlantic Ocean, would cause a tsunami that would flood both The United Kingdom and the entire East Coast of the United States in minutes. A 1km object could wipe out 1/4 of earth's life.

Doomsayers love the above scenarios and yes, they are pretty frightening. But the truth is, we are vulnerable and yes, there is a chance we could be hit by an object that may cause unbelievable death and destruction.  But, there really is nothing we can do about it is there? As far as I am aware there is no 100% plan to divert or vaporize near earth objects nor is there a 100% method of finding them all. Yes, we have some untested theories and plans, but no guarantee any will work.

The bottom line for me is- why worry about something that you cannot change or about something that may not happen. If it happens and you are not a ball of fire, then you can worry.