You may not have heard much about it, but last Friday an asteroid almost hit our big blue marble. It seems a chunk of space-rock came within just 8,700 miles of Earth. Putting that in perspective, it’s 30 times closer than the Moon, which is 250,000 miles away.
To make matters worse, scientists only had 15 hours of warning. That’s not even enough time to get Bruce Willis off his oil rig, let alone suit him up and put him on a shuttle.
Before you get to panicky, though, it should be pointed out that the asteroid in question was only 23 feet across - not a planet-killer by any stretch of the imagination. So, despite the apocalyptic headline, unless you were standing right near it’s impact point, you probably wouldn’t have died.
Still, the fact that no one saw it coming until it was too late is a bit disturbing. What’s going to happen when a big one sneaks up on us?
Four years ago, Democrats in Congress charged NASA with the responsibility of protecting us against near-Earth objects. Then, however, the same Democrats refused to fund the program. Maybe while they’re handing out Billions to banks, car companies, and social projects, all of which will be destroyed if we ever really get hit, they could throw Nasa the measly $300 Million it would take to find and track these objects.
Just a thought.gl