THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, August 27, 1994 TAG: 9408270228
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A16 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF REPORT
LENGTH: Short : 38 lines
They're out there - thousands of asteroids, asteroid fragments, comets and pieces of comets whizzing through the solar system. Does one of them have our name on it?
In 1993, an asteroid the size of a truck came within an astronomical whisker of Earth, passing just 90,000 miles away. That's less than half the distance to the moon, far too close for comfort.
If a large meteorite were to slam into the planet today, the loss of life and property could be cataclysmic, on a scale unknown in modern history. Thousands, millions might die in an instant. Shock waves, earthquakes and tidal waves from the blast would batter dazed survivors, level buildings and homes and reduce forests to splinters.
Depending on the size of the object, the whole planet could be affected, agriculture disrupted and global weather patterns altered. Fortunately, a direct hit from a big asteroid - 3 or more miles in diameter - is a rare event, occurring every 10 to 30 million years, scientists say. To protect against astral apocalypse, astronomers worldwide are banding together to search the skies for marauding meteors. Using state-of-the-art telescopes and computers, researchers are attempting to catalog objects that pose even the faintest threat to the planet.
Some scientists think an asteroid or comet headed straight for Earth could be diverted by exploding a nuclear warhead in space nearby. The explosion, the theory goes, would alter the object's path sufficiently to miss Earth altogether. At least, that's the plan. No one hopes it will be put to the test for a few million more years. by CNB