[meteorite-list] Re: 'Science Stud' Hosts PBS Show on Killer Asteroids

From: Robert Verish <bolidechaser_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue Oct 3 18:43:01 2006
Message-ID: <20061003224244.93107.qmail_at_web51713.mail.yahoo.com>

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3313/01.html

This is the episode in which the "Science Stud"
interviews List member Rob Matson out "in the field"
in the Mojave Desert on a meteorite hunt.

A must see program for tonight,

Bob V.

------------- Original Message ---------------
'Science Stud' Hosts PBS Show on Killer Asteroids
Ron Baalke baalke at zagami.jpl.nasa.gov
Tue Oct 3 15:48:30 EDT 2006

<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=apDrUh8ZAePA&refer=muse>

`Science Stud' Hosts Show on Killer Asteroids, Flying
`Tractor'
By Dave Shiflett
Bloomberg.com

Oct. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Geek chic is alive and well on
PBS, where Neil deGrasse Tyson -- billed as the
``sexiest astrophysicist alive'' -- debuts as host of
the ``Science Now'' series tomorrow night [October 3].

Tyson, planetarium director at New York's American
Museum of Natural History, may not strike all viewers
as a latter-day Adonis, though he's definitely a few
notches up from Albert Einstein.

The science stud wears jeans, denim shirt and a brown
vest in the opener; the absence of a lab coat,
horn-rimmed glasses and distracted air tell us he's a
brainiac of a different stripe.

I suspect most viewers are likely to be more
interested in the substance of the show, including an
arresting lead segment on a subject dear to
insomniacs: the possibility of the Earth being struck
by a killer asteroid.

It has happened several times before, we're reminded,
including a massive strike by an asteroid the size of
Everest some 65 million years ago, which among other
things is credited with exterminating the dinosaurs.

Tyson, pleasantly calm when discussing the possibility
of being smashed to smithereens, visits fellow geeks
at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who tell him a
soaring projectile named Apophis may be headed toward
Earth.

Flying `Tractor'

While not Everest-sized, it is about as large as the
Rose Bowl and could deliver an impact equivalent to
100 nuclear weapons going off at once.
Bada-bang, indeed. An early estimate posited a 1-in-37
chance the strike would come April 13, 2029 -- a
Friday, as it happens -- though the impact date has
since been postponed to sometime in 2036.

The good news, Tyson discovers, is that we don't have
to simply sit here and suffer a cosmic whacking. A bit
of pre- emption could change the asteroid's path,
though the favored Hollywood cure -- nuking the
intruder -- would shower the Earth with deadly debris.

Better to sic a ``gravitational tractor'' on the
intruder; an animation sequence shows a large,
unmanned space vehicle flying along just ahead of the
asteroid, slightly changing its speed and path.

Investors take note: There are at least 4,000 ``near
Earth'' asteroids that come in various sizes and
shapes; some resemble giant cucumbers, potatoes and
dog bones. The grav-trac industry could become the
next big
thing.

[snip]

Tyson points out that the asteroid that wiped out the
dinosaurs 65 million years ago also cleared the way
for the development of human beings. And that, he
says, is ``the cosmic perspective.''

No word yet on who or what may be waiting in the wings
should Homo sapiens suffer a similar hit.

For more information on the program, see
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow .

(Dave Shiflett is a critic for Bloomberg News.
The opinions expressed are his own.)
Received on Tue 03 Oct 2006 06:42:44 PM PDT