Close Call With Asteroid - A Near Miss!

There was a wake up call for some real basic research that came in the middle of the night and most folks on Earth missed it. Actually it missed Earth.

Asteroid 2009 DD45 flew past our tiny planet at an altitude above the Earth of only 48,800 miles, and that puts it close to the orbits of some of our communications satellites. That is close.
The space rock was only spotted in February by an Australian observatory. Within a few hours of its discovery scientists realized it would not strike Earth, but the message is clear. We are constantly being bombarded by space debris and it is only a matter of time before something big will get here with disastrous results. What we need is more data.

That means much more work tracking asteroids and comets to give us as much warning as possible. Then we need a plan to deal with a big asteroid that might not burn up in the atmosphere. Remember the dinosaurs? They might be walking around as sentient and dominant life forms today had not a huge asteroid crashed into the earth somewhere near the Gulf of Mexico. That impact wiped out most life on earth and there is absolutely no reason it couldn’t happen again.

Basic research into asteroids and space can warn or possibly prevent this but that will take funding and the will of the people of Earth. I speak of us as one people, because such a catastrophic event would not respect any artificial borders. We need to have a plan.

There are some organizations doing this kind of research, but they are underfunded and working in a scientific backwater. Their efforts need to be brought to the forefront. Just to give you a sense of proportion, the next time an object will get closer to Earth will be in 2029 when an 885-foot asteroid called 99942 Apophis comes within 20,000 miles. There may be others we don’t know about, and that is the problem.

Sleep on it and then write your Congressperson.