[AZ-Observing] Re: Almost put on impact alert

At 11:21 -0700 02/26/2004, Steve Coe wrote:
>Howdy folks;
>I saw the link to this story:
>
>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3517319.stm
>
>it is about the fact that with very few observations there was 
>almost an announcement made concerning a possible meteoroid 
>collision with Earth.
>
>I am struck by the fact that so little seems to continually be done 
>in this field.  With a very modest input of funds we could probably 
>do a much better job of monitoring the assortment of rocks that 
>orbit the Sun with us.  But NO!
>
>What would it take to construct a dozen or so medium sized 
>telescopes around the world, so that they can't all be clouded out? 
>Link them up with enough computer power to keep track of the things 
>that might threaten the Earth with a collision and start trying to 
>discover more.  It seems such an obvious solution.  Ah, we are so 
>smart that we let politics and funding stand in the way of our very 
>survival.
>
>Crazy, man, crazy;
>Steve Coe

There seems to be more interest all the time. The problem is right 
now if we found a problem object, we have no means to do anything 
about it. NASA is afraid to even send a mission to Hubble let alone 
to deflect an object in space. Destroying or altering the course of 
an asteroid is not a simple task and nearly impossible with short 
notice.

Does anyone recall what issue of S&T  (many years ago) that had a 
daytime photo of an asteroid/meteor skimming the atmosphere and 
bouncing back into space. I was amazed at the photo. It showed this 
fiery mass zipping across the sky.

Jeff.
-- 
Jeff Hopkins
HPO SOFT
http://www.hposoft.com/Astro/astro.html

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