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Re: (meteorobs) Doomsday Icarus
In a message dated 98-03-13 14:32:48 EST, you write:
<< Careful, Kevin, you are confusing 2 things here...one was the crap from the
russian about Icarus, and the other is the 1997 XF11 imbroglio. THe Icarus
garbage was dispensed of rather quickly.>>
Sorry folks I DID mean to change the subject line, I guess I hit send too
fast.
<< As far as the media, they did real well for the first 24 hours or so,
when all they did was report the CBAT/MPC facts. After then, of course,
they had time to muck with the facts. BTW, that video you saw (on ABC I
think Kevin) came from the Discovery channel's 3 minutes to impact, which
did have an animation whacking that puppy on RT 287 between your home and
the NJAA :->. I think that's why they used it..dot it was already available.
It was also nice to see some faces attached to the names we know so
well... Jim Scotti, Brian Marsden, Don Yeomans. I even saw the Columbia
University Astronomer who completely blew the Nov 17th fireball
(remember..dot it was in the early evening, yet he called it a Leonid), so now
I know where to write to straighten him out about that! (Looks like he's an
ABC TV favorite, since that's where he reappeared). Even he handled this
OK. >>
Yes but by the time Yeomans et. al. were on the TV they were doing damage
control. Its too late then. Astronomers most of the time end up looking like
geeky idiots. Always having to say "Well our data was incomplete...we didn't
mean this really... etc... It just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
<< I guess it might have been better if the first IAUC had been a bit
more private to keep the machinations of science from misleading the public,
but the fact is that is how science works. It's not perfect all the time,
and you attempt to get more and better data to refine the predictions and
theories. And while the hype was pretty extensive, I don't think it was as
bad as it could have been.>>
This is what I was trying to get at. Before Marsden announces a comet
discovery there are many, many observations done first. What happened here.
<< It was worth it:-> Besides, the issue is now a bit more in the public eye,
although the conspiracists will have a field day. From a point of view it
looks fishy....from those that do it all the time, that's just how science
works. >>
Its in the public eye alright. But only the people "in the know" have any idea
of whats really involved behind all this. The average layman only thinks of it
as another doomsday false alarm by geeks with slide rules. I don't like the
way the thing was handled at all. As I think I mentioned before, astronomy
once again will the butt of everyones jokes. We don't deserve it.
Kev