For some months now, Asteroid 1998 OX4 has been quietly identified on the NEODys system as having some real statistical possibility/probability of impacting the Earth this century. But, hey, so have three others (as was another one that was on, then off, the list).
You know, I found it more than a little strange that here we have a 300 to 400 meter wide Asteroid...predicted by NASA and other authorities to be on a COLLISION COURSE with Earth - and not a word in the media about it! After a while I just assumed, after the 1997XF11 fiasco (where some astronomer predicted a collision only to have to take it back a few days later), that the media wasn't going to jump on every prediction.
I mentioned here a few days ago that Great Britain had appointed a special Task Force and that they were about to identify Asteroid/Comet collisions as the number one natural hazard facing their nation today. Well, I have now read their entire report very carefully, and I believe that it might be a stepping stone communique designed to inch a little closer to making a public announcement...that a major asteroid impact is in our immediate future.
I won't get into ALL of the reasons I think this is a possibility in this post, as it would get too lengthy, but let me summarize as follows:
1) The report goes to
great lengths describing impact damage and death tolls for various size and
composition asteroids/comets.
2) It spends some considerable time talking about how, with enough advance
warning, we could move large population segments away from the impact zone, thus
saving some lives (but having to live with property destruction, fire storms,
envirnomental impacts, etc., etc.)
3) It states more than once, that once it is known that an Asteroid will impact
that we will know exactly where and when the impact will occur.
4) At about page 50 of the report, it then identifies three Asteroids whose
collision with Earth cannot be ruled out - two of which are small enough to
cause little or no damage on the ground. It leaves 1998 OX4 as being a PROJECTED
IMPACT that "has not been ruled out", and then gives a series of
possible impact dates.
According to their estimates, found elsewhere in the Report, this Asteroid...if it impacts...could:
1) be anywhere from a
"Large sub-global event" to a "Low Global Effect Threshold"
event.
2) leave an impact crater 6 to 8 Kilometers wide
3) be expected to kill "on average" somewhere between 500 thousand and
1.5 BILLION people.
4) totally destroy an area the size of Delaware
5) release energy equivalent to up to 1,000 Hydrogen bombs.
They give dates of 2014, 2038, 2044 and 2046 as possbile "impact years".
NEODys, by the way, lists these same years (with the exception of 2014). But NEODys also lists 2078 as being a year where this Asteroid's "Minimum Possible Distance" from the Earth could be .0000568AU. That's only 5,270 miles...from the CENTER of the Earth...which would plant it firmly INTO the planet!
Okay, now, its gets a little weirder from here.
This Asteroid, a double Earth crosser by the way, comes around about every two years (every 723 days).
a) The British report was
released on Sept. 18, 2000.
b) 1998 OX4 made this year's "close" pass to the Earth on Sept. 20,
2000.
c) It will be back around in 2002, 2004 and 2006.
d) For some VERY STRANGE reason the British report lists the release of the
movies Armageddon and Deep Impact, in 1998, among the events over the last 300
years that have led to increases in our understanding of Comets and Asteroids
(huh?).
Now get this, and stay with me if you can (or want to maybe)...
The report repeatedly refers to a NASA probe, due to be launched in 2004, called...Deep Impact...that will chase Comet 9P Tempel 1 (so they say) and launch a solid copper projectile into the Comet's nucleus to see how big a hole it makes - and to see how much it alters its orbit - in 2005!
Okay (I SAID it was going to get weirder), in April of 2005 Comet Tempel 1 and Asteroid 1998 OX4 will be in exactly the same region of the Solar System.
Could it be that the Deep Impact probe is actually meant to intercept 1998 OX4 - a KNOWN future EARTH IMPACTOR - instead of Tempel 1? It would be the ideal time to deflect it, still being 17 months away from its next Earth encounter in 2006.
That is, if the "powers that be" actually expect a 2006 impact, and the deflection does not work, then we will have 17 months to implement the civil defence plans the Brits go on at length about.
From all offical Government accounts:
1) Asteroid 1998 OX4 has a
high probability of impacting the Earth this century - and is openly projected
to do so!
2) NASA is launching the Deep Impact probe in 2004 specifically to intercept and
IMPACT (thus diverting) an NEO object in 2005. The official word now is that it
will be Comet 9P Tempel 1...but 1998 OX4 WILL be in the same vicinity!
3) The British are publically calculating the economic costs of an Asteroid
impact, making plans to deal with the resultant environmental, industrial and
political issues, encouraging activities like the Deep Impact mission to
"mitigate" the serious effects of an impact.
4) They (along with the other western powers) are engaging in a systematic
program to "educate" the public about (desensitize?) the absolute
certainty that an Asteroid/Comet will hit the Earth and cause significant damage
and disruption. They enclose all kinds of merry little charts and figures to
show that - "shucks folks we get hit every day", no big deal, its just
the size of the incoming rocks that vary from year to year...and heck we've had
some pretty big boomers over the last few years that most people didn't even
notice (in other words, even when they finally make the formal announcement,
there will be no need to panic or overreact...it's all perfectly normal and
under control).
I apologize for this long post, but I think this may well be serious. If anyone wants additional info I will be glad to post it and discuss everybody's ideas and information.
As a "PS" something REALLY IS fishy here. Something is up for sure...but for all I know 1998 OX4 is just a bit more of the smokescreen, one more to be discarded maybe, before the real impactor is announced (if it isn't actually 1998 OX4).
PPS...I also do not think
it was mere coincidence that NASA made a big deal about 2000 RD53 and 2000 QW7 -
which were non-events.
It is easy to speculate that they were a test of the
media/internet "early warning system".
Zdroj - Asteroid
1998 OX4 - diskuse
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