Aircraft Carrier Space Rock From Hell

Not to cause undue alarm, but it’s reported that an asteroid the size of an aircraft carrier is expected to whiz between the Earth and the Moon this next Tuesday at 5:28 p.m. central time, the largest space rock to come near our planet in the past 35 years. But NASA scientists assure us that this gigantic rock, creatively named “2005 YU255” (I’d name it “Aircraft Carrier Space Rock From Hell”), going thousands of miles per hour, will not impact the Earth: “We’re extremely confident, 100 percent confident, that this is not a threat,” comforts Don Yeomans, NASA’s Near Earth Object Program. “We know the orbit of this object very well.” I’m not so sure. For one thing, I’m somewhat worried to learn that NASA has a Near Earth Object Program. Doesn’t this program’s very existence (which I doubt anyone not in the program has ever heard of) assume some potential danger from what must be a host of objects tumbling around near Earth? And just how sure can we be by the scientists’ celestial forecasts? How accurate are they on a day-by-day basis with the weather forecast? Finally, what else are they going to say than there’s no threat? If they thought there was a threat, would they say, “This shit’s going to be bad and there’s nothing you can do about it”?, or “Go ahead and take off work early Tuesday”?, or “Duck and cover”? If they’re right and it doesn’t hit, they look good. If they’re wrong and we’re wiped out, who’s around to blame them? I think that’s the way science has always worked. I took a course in the History of Science when I was in college and learned that this is what’s called the “scientific method.”

Fireball

Last night there was a fireball that raced across the sky in the southwestern United States. Of course, freaked out observers thought the end was near, that the aliens were (again) landing to take over the world. But of course, it was only a chunk of asteroid that became a meteor when it hit the atmosphere, a bright flash of light with a tail flaming across the sky. I once saw a similar cosmic event. I was in Boy Scouts and we were camping in the heat of summer and we had dragged our sleeping bags out of our tents in the relative coolness of the August night and were chatting away about whatever 13-year-old boys chat away about late at night in the woods when a bright red fireball streaked above us through the Milky Way. It was brilliant, impressive, awesome. But it was only a moment. I suppose we made some notice of it, though I can’t recall if we did. We certainly didn’t consider it some extra-terrestrial visitation as apparently some did after last night’s apparition. (This was before all the 60s sci-fi movies, not to mention E.T. and Close Encounters.) It was simply a really cool sky show, and I’ve remembered it ever since. Veronica McGregor, of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, noted of last night’s show that "For all the millions of people that called, they can scratch that off their bucket list. They are very lucky to see a fireball.” Wow. Fifty years ago I didn’t realize I was lucky to see a celestial fireball. And could scratch it off my bucket list. When I was 13 years old.