[meteorite-list] New Asteroid Threat Seen (Asteroid 2003 QQ47)

From: tracy latimer <daistiho_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:29:50 2004
Message-ID: <Sea2-F246b4MYq6YXNI00052e64_at_hotmail.com>

Thank you for the update, Ron. I REALLY want a
banging-head-against-the-wall smiley for instances like this. An
astronomer(s) find(s) a new asteroid that MAY have an orbit that is
Earth-crossing. Immediately, the press runs amok with the data and screams
"Doomsday!" before waiting for more information. Not to mention every
nutbar who is 'talking with the aliens/spirits/God' and channeling their pet
delusions. For the people who are actually searching for real asteroid
threats, this sort of fearmongering is more dangerous than a potential
impactor, because the public gets desensitized. At least MSN got it right
with the Torino scale, but the rest was sensationalism.

Tracy Latimer

>From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>
>To: meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com (Meteorite Mailing List)
>Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] New Asteroid Threat Seen (Asteroid 2003 QQ47)
>Date: Tue, 2 Sep 2003 15:42:06 -0700 (PDT)
>
>LINEAR obtained some new observations of the asteroid today, which extends
>the data arc from 6.7 days to 9 days. We've just computed a new orbit
>solution, and
>2003 QQ47 has dropped to Torino 0. Also, the number of potential impacts
>have been reduced from 31 to 18, and the 2014 potential impact
>has been eliminated.
>
>http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/risk
>
>Ron Baalke
>
>
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Received on Wed 03 Sep 2003 03:40:22 AM PDT