Subj: sorry... hate sendin you stuff
like this
Date: 1/4/00 6:10:36 AM Pacific Standard Time
Are they getting ready....and
i did not know that something passed between the earth and the moon , did
you?
Tuesday, 4 January, 2000,
06:50 GMT
Taskforce tackles asteroid
threat
A Nasa simulation of an asteroid
impact on Earth
An expert taskforce to assess
the threat of an asteroid strike on Earth has been appointed by the UK
government.
The men who will examine the risk of the Earth being destroyed by an object
from outer space were named on Tuesday.
The task force will be chaired by Dr Harry Atkinson, past chairman of the
European Space Agency's Council. The other members will be environmentalist
and former diplomat Sir Crispin Tickell and Professor David Williams.
Welsh MP Lembit Opik, who first suggested setting up a body to monitor the
threat, warned in the Commons in March that the risk of being killed by an
asteroid was 750 times higher than winning the National Lottery.
This is not something that
people should lie awake at night worrying about but we cannot ignore the
risk, however remote
Lord Sainsbury The Montgomery
Liberal Democrat MP met Lord Sainsbury in July, urging him to set up a body
to examine the possibility of objects from space striking the Earth.
Science Minister Lord Sainsbury has now asked the three-man team to look
at the potential for risk posed by asteroids and comets - termed "near-Earth
objects".
The team will make proposals to the British National Space Centre on the
nature of the hazard and will consider how the UK should best contribute
to international effort to prevent a strike.
Blasts from the
past
66m years ago: Six-mile wide asteroid hits Mexico, causing global
destruction
50,000 ya: Asteroid strikes Arizona with the force of a 15 megaton nuclear
bomb
June 1908: Meteor impacts on Siberia, 770 square miles of forest destroyed
October 1992, football-sized space rock destroys a car in New York
[Source: National
Geographic]Announcing the
members of the task force, Lord Sainsbury said: "The risk of an asteroid
or comet causing substantial damage is extremely remote.
"We cannot ignore the risk, however remote, and a case can be made for monitoring
the situation on an international basis.
"I hope that the setting up of this task force will help the UK play a full
and prominent role in international discussions on this important issue."
He said he was "delighted to be able to announce such a well-qualified team
of experts", adding that he looked forward to receiving their report by the
middle of 2000.
Sir Crispin Tickell said: "One of the purposes of the taskforce is to put
together the evidence to identify what is coming towards us.
"Last year, an object passed between the Moon and Earth which, if it had
hit us, would have done a lot of damage."
Asteroids can devastate the
Earth
Many near-Earth objects have
been identified and their orbits determined using ground-based telescopes
in a number of countries, although many are yet to be surveyed.
Of those known, none is believed to pose a significant risk to the Earth
in the foreseeable future, according to the Department of Trade and Industry.
However, on a time-scale of many millions of years, the Earth has been hit
by objects of sufficient size to cause serious damage.
These include the object which is thought to have hit the Earth about 65
million years ago, and led to the extinction of the dinosaurs.