Summary

2 Pages 589 Words

The International Astronomical Union Circular #6837 released by Brian Marsden on March 11 was published to report the findings Marsden’s group had come across. Marsden stated in the publication that “the chance of an actual collision is small…but one is clearly not out of the question” (Marsden). Marsden’s group has supposedly come across evidence that supported that the asteroid 119XF11 could possibly collide with the earth. Just one day later, evidence dismissing the report was found and published.
I think the scientists should not have published their original data, which showed the small possibility of the asteroid 1197XF11 colliding with the earth. Their theories should not have been published without months, maybe years of lose observation of the asteroid and its orbit. A closer investigation of the asteroid showed that there was no chance at all that the asteroid would collide with the earth. If the astronomers had waited to further investigate their “discovery,” they would have known that there were pictures of the asteroid taken in 1990, pictures which provided hard evidence that the asteroid would in fact not collide with the earth. The sad thing is, the day after the report’s publication, this news broke out. The astronomers had caused a media frenzy over nothing.


The media had a field day with the astronomer’s report of the possibility of an asteroid colliding with the earth’s atmosphere. The media always blows its reports of pain and suffering out of proportion, so the bare thought of our human race sharing the same fate the dinosaurs were believed to have had is bound to be over exaggerated.
I think a lot pf people overreacted, and I think they should have. Most of us have heard the theories of the dinosaurs’ extinction being caused by a meteor collision with earth. The thought of the same fate for mankind in 2028 would scare almost anyone. The media also has a great effect o...