More Asteroids Are likely, Scientists Say

Henry Anderson                                                                                              Current Event Report

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

            <http://www.nytimes.com/ 2013/11/07/science/space/more-large-asteroid-strikes-are-likely-scientists- find.html?ref=science&_r=0>.

            "More Asteroids Strikes Are Likely, Scientists Say" is an article by Kenneth Chang that discuses the recent scientific discovery by Journal Nature that Asteroid strikes are expected to become more and recent. This research, which was largely sparked by the Asteroid that exploded above Chelyabinsk, Russia early this year on February 15th, has calculated that  similar asteroid explosions could occur every one or two decades. These predictions are frightening; the shockwave alone from the Chelyabinsk asteroid injured abut 1,200 people; more asteroid strikes provide more risk for injuries and even deaths. In addition, this asteroid luckily exploded before it could hit Russia, but it is very possible for larger asteroids to hit Earth and cause mass life-ending damage. This article went into depth on the subject, discussing the possible effects of kilometer-wide asteroids, which are classified as "big" asteroids. These asteroids would wipe-out our civilization if they impacted Earth. Much smaller asteroids of about 450 feet wide would still be equivalent to the force produced by about 150 million tons of TNT. Naturally, these ominous predictions have lead to a serious effort to develop anti-asteroid technology. The United Nations is about to establish an "International Asteroid Warning Network" and will fund a group focused on possible ways of deflecting asteroids. A telescope called the Sentinel has been designed to find 450-feet-wide asteroids, but it's extremely expensive: about 450 million dollars. Technologies such as these would vital in case an asteroid is about to hit Earth. It could allow people to evacuate areas where asteroids are expected to strike or even lead to devices that could deflect asteroids so they don't hit Earth at all. NASA too has joined the anti-asteroid movement by funding the production of telescopes designed to spot asteroids at the University of Hawaii. 

            This article is as relevant as ever. Asteroid strikes have a very obvious effect on society. Even a small asteroid could kill and injure millions of people if it lands in a highly-populated area. Telescopes such as the Sentinel can predict this and prevent it from happening. If we had these devices a year ago. We could have predicted the Chelyabinsk asteroid and avoided thousands of injuries by merely warning people from standing by the windows. Anti-Asteroid technology should be implemented as soon as possible and if implemented, it will save countless lives in the future, leaving a very positive impact on society. 

            This article article was extremely factual. It gave very detailed statistics concerning the magnitude of asteroids impacts and how damaging they could be. This information is important, but I feel this article stressed its importance with unneeded repetition. It is unnecessary to compare the impacts of different size asteroids with  quantities of TNT. Few people are even familiar with how powerful a TNT blast is (I'm not). I also think this article should have mentioned how scientists know asteroid impacts are going to be more common. Why haven't there been asteroid in the previous decades? And why has the asteroid impact frequency gone up? I think this article should go into more depth concerning the science of asteroid impact to answer several of the aforementioned questions. However, that being said, this article was very strong in most areas. The journalism was excellent, collecting informative quotations from many astronomers and professors to bring different points across and create an all-around more cohesive piece of writing. It also went into lots of depth concerning the action taking place in order to avoid future asteroid impacts. All in all the article was a very informative and enjoyable read.