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Keeper of the Objects
cEnTiBeE writes that this is "not about the Matrix," but rather about Near Earth Object tracking. "It's accomplished by a staff of 2.5 people watching to see when any 'vermin of the sky' plan to pay earth a visit. This piece titled Keeper of the Objects is in the August '03 issue of Scientific American."
2 and a half people? Cool. I wonder what the midget does.
The scary ones are where the scientists watch them for a week, and only see the size grow, with no apparent movement across the sky.
If only they got 1/10th of the budget of the hollywood films.
There are only a few things that hollywood does get right with respect to science, and this in particular.
1. We are presumably now at the first time in history that something could be done to avoid such a cataclysimic event.
2. Early detection is the key, It is far easier to deflect something millions of miles away, than it is when it is 4 minutes from impact.
I would place the protection of our planet from those things that would kill us all, as far more important than ensuring people didnt cheat on their taxes, and arn't sneaking booze in on the airplane, but, I dont choose where the tax dollars go... yet.
paul reinheimer
There are only 2 staff because the sacked the entire department previously, NASA begrudge handing over money to this project and has consistantly thought that the object tracking was not an important cause worthy of a whole research department (even though there are billions of objects that will cause serious damage to a sat if they are struck by it, then you have even more junk)
maybe when one lands in washington will they take it a bit more serious
...this program wasn't in place when CowboyNeal was approaching earth.
Remember, the total number of people involved in watching the skies for potential Earth impactors is fewer than the staff of one shift of a modest McDonald's restaurant.
Actually there is a lot more than 2.5 watching the skies. The Minor Planet Center takes data from amatuers as well as their own automated telescope. It is true that the MPC keeps and processes the data. Although ametuers are known from time to time to do their own orbital calculations.
I'm glad this guy has a good grasp on the subject, since most people don't seem to realize asteroids probably represent the most immediate threat of extinction to the human species. He should exaggerate a few more threats, so that someone actually starts contributing money to finding out ways to prevent the impact of an asteroid. All current /.ers will be dead by the time a big asteroid probably hits, but we should still have a plan.
Could someone please enlighten me? I hear a lot about NASA and how our budget for monitoring dangerous objects has been way too low.
Are other countries partaking in this? I know we're not the only ones with a space program, and I've BEEN to observatories across the globe. Yet in all of these stories, I never read about a comparison between us and, let's say, France.
Are there any other countries that make it a point to monitor the skies for this stuff? How do their budgets compare to ours? I'm not saying "Go USA," I'm actually curious.
Seriously, any information would be appreciated.
10m - every 1-5 years
100m - every 1000 years
1km - every 100,000 years
The Tunguska blast of 1908 was a roughly 100m asteroid, hitting land.
If it had been an ocean impact, it would have produced significant tsunamis.
On the remote chance it had landed right on top of a large city, then the city would be completely gone.
A 1km asteroid would wipe out a moderate US state, or create tsunamis that travel to most of the globe. Either way it would affect the climate due to dust clouds.
The observational population census for Earth crossing objects is only complete for objects in the 8-kilometre diameter range (such as 1627 Ivor) or larger. The detection completeness for 1 kilometre range is estimated to be in the region of 12%.
(further reading is here)
Maybe it's worthwhile upping the budget so we can track all of them down to 1km ?
-- the only thing we have to fear is really scary things
Because as long as we have all our eggs in one basket, the people who watch the hail falling around our basket should get some recognition?
When Earth is just another of the human planets then it will be more reasonable for its news coverage to only appear in the Obituaries section.
Check out my NEO map from my astronomer days (before this whole interweb thing stole me away)
http://szyzyg.arm.ac.uk/~spm/
It works off the same data and basically plots all the positions every day.
As an astronomer, I can say with confidence that those 2.5 people probably do a lot more of technological babysitting than actual not-enough-time-in-the-day work... objects are found by computer software that compare image residuals (subtractions of images separated by a day or two)... fast moving things are closer to earth and may warrant follow-up with a larger 'scope.