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Re: (meteorobs) Probabilities of REALLY BIG fireballs...
In a message dated 98-02-10 12:03:23 EST, you write:
<< Personally I do not care who is right only that we plan for the worse case
and hope for the best case. Kind of what we do when we buy insurance.
>>
IMHO I don't think there's a way we CAN plan for worst case senario. It was a
few years ago (don't remember exactly) when a piece of rock came sailing
fairly close to us about the moons orbit diameter away (very close) and we
didn't even spot it until 3 days AFTER it went by. There's just not enough CCD
cameras scanning the skies. We're just fish in a barrel.
I'm sure everyone's heard the analogy that there are more people behind the
counter of one McDonalds then there are people worldwide scanning the skies
for hunks of rock.
Arthur C. Clarke's book "The Hammer of God'" is truely a sci-fi story. The
story is they discovered an asteroid heading for Earth. They had 1 years
notice. Won't happen in real life. We don't need a dino-killer, just think
that the Meteor Crater in AZ (few thousand feet wide, six hundred feet deep)
was made by an asteroid only the size of a subway car (75 feet long). What
would happen if it landed in downtown NYC, Chicago, L.A. or Dallas?
Kevin