Current Event Report: "More Asteroid Strikes Are Likely, Scientists Say"

            In February a 60 foot asteroid landed in Chelyabinsk, Russia.  The asteroid injured many people and scientists said it could only occur every 100 to 200 years.  With further recent studies, scientists have found that there are many more asteroids like this that could hit Earth every decade or so.  The General Assembly committee of the United Nations is planning to set up an International Asteroid Warning Network so scientists all over the world can work together to deflect asteroids coming to Earth.  Thankfully, with recent technology, sky spotters have seen 95% of the large, one kilometer asteroids near Earth but have found that none of them will hit Earth.  Dr. Edward T. Lu, former NASA astronaut, has proposed a B612 telescope that will be able to find asteroids that are 450 feet wide and smaller.  An asteroid of this size could release 150 million tons of TNT and could possibly kill 50 million people, so that is why it is important that the B612 telescope was proposed so astronomers can try and deflect any of the asteroids of this size that are coming near Earth.  Since this technology is still rather new, scientists haven’t found many asteroids yet so they are studying asteroids that have already hit the Earth.  When talking about the discovery of new asteroids, Dr. Lu said, “When you find out how many there are, you also find out where the individual ones are.  Everything you discover you can either rule out as going to hit us or you say, ‘Hey, we ought to look at this one more carefully.’”  NASA is also setting up a new telescope in 2015 that will scan quick-moving lights that could possibly be asteroids.

            This paragraph is very relevant to society today.  It is relevant because in the last hundred years, there have been significant asteroids that have hit the Earth.  With these hits, people grow more and more nervous about what could possibly hit the Earth next.  The new technology that astronomers have been coming up with, such as the B612 telescope, will help greatly with preventing further hits from happening.  Even if it is too late to deflect the asteroids, we can still know where they might hit and evacuate that area before an asteroid hits it.  This technology also helps with the exploration of space and finding other asteroids that are out there, even if they are no threat to Earth.

            Overall, I think this was a very well written and informative article.  It got it’s message across immediately and didn’t use too many words too describe it.  It also was very easy to understand because it wasn’t just written for other scientists or astronomers.  The only criticism I have is that the author could have gone a little more in depth with the B612 plan because I am still not really sure what the entire plan is.  In general, this article had a lot of information about asteroids and their possible affects on Earth and this is something that many more people should take their time to learn about.    



Chang, Kenneth. "More Asteroid Strikes Are Likely Scientists Say." NY Times. New York Times, 6 Nov. 2013. Web. 6 Nov. 2013.


http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/07/science/space/more-large-asteroid-strikes-are-likely-scientists-find.html?ref=science&_r=1&