VULCAN AND COMETS RELATED SITES

EARTH DEFENSE
6 May 2013 © Copyright - Only Italicized Comments
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  1. OFFICIAL WARNINGS
  2. CALIFORNIA AND THE WORLD AT RISK
  3. MORE OFFICIAL WARNINGS
  4. DESTRUCTION OF THREATENING IMPACTORS
  5. UNUSUAL SURVIVAL STRATEGIES

RELATED SITES LISTINGS

  1. OFFICIAL WARNINGS
    • NASA’S ASTEROID MISSION HOPES TO PREVENT LARGE SCALE DESTRUCTION! - May 6, 2013
    • WORLD TAKES ACTION AGAINST FUTURE METEORITE STRIKES HELLWARS - Feb 23, 2013
    • ASTEROID HUNTER: AN INTERVIEW WITH NEOSSAT SCIENTIST ALAN HILDEBRAND - 23 February 2013
      A Canadian satellite poised to launch Monday (Feb. 25) is taking the search for asteroids near Earth into orbit. The suitcase-size Near Earth Object Surveillance Satellite (NEOSSat) will launch Monday (Feb. 25) atop an Indian Polar Satellite LaunchVehicle and seek out large asteroids from an orbit about 497 miles (800 kilometers) above Earth.
    • RUSSIAN METEOR KICKS UP CLOUD OF MISTRUST - Feb 19, 2013
      If I had to choose a single word to describe the dominant attitude in Russian society, it would be “mistrust.” The meteor, or possibly small asteroid, that exploded over the Ural Mountains city of Chelyabinsk on Feb. 15 illustrated this as few other events could.
      Even the agendas of astronomers could not be trusted. When Lydia Rykhlova of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Astronomy Institute announced that Russia could protect itself from space threats at a cost of 58 billion rubles, or almost $2 billion, many commentators on social networks ridiculed the plan as a device to steal taxpayers’ money.
    • RUSSIA TO SPEND BILLIONS ON ASTEROID DEFENSE - 19 February, 2013
    • PLANETARY DEFENSE PLANS FOR ASTEROIDS FORM - Nov 29, 2011
      The meeting, held at University of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, was organized by the Secure World Foundation and aimed at a draft report for the U.N. Action Team 14 working group on NEOs. The team forms part of the U.N.’s Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space Scientific and Technical Subcommittee, and will present guidance to the U.N. working group at a NEO- mitigation meeting in Vienna, in February 2012.
    • ESA TO ATTEMPT ASTEROID SMASH-UP - 18 August 2011
      Scientists from the European Space Agency (ESA) are planning to fire a spacecraft into an asteroid in an attempt to prepare for one that could be on a direct collision course with the Earth.
      The news comes after NASA dismissed claims that one was already hurling toward the third rock from the Sun.
    • FACT FOLLOWING FICTION? SCIENTISTS PLAN MISSION TO BLOW UP AN ASTEROID 'HURTLING TOWARDS EARTH' - 17th August 2011
      Plan is similar to the plot of Hollywood film Armageddon
      The real version, if it goes ahead in 2015, will see a satellite fired at break- neck speed into a ‘test’ asteroid to see if its course changes.
      The aim is to assess whether it would be possible to save Earth using this method, should we discover that an asteroid is on a collision course with our planet. The mission, called Don Quijote, will involve sending two spacecraft towards a near-Earth asteroid.
    • NEW STRATEGIES FOR EXPLORATION AND SETTLEMENT - June 6, 2011
      The "ultimate rationale" for human spaceflight is the survival of the species, he said, noting the record of asteroid and comet impacts and the likelihood that eventually another large body will collide with the Earth, with devastating consequences for life on the planet. “If you want humanity to survive, you’re going to have to create multiple reservoirs of human culture," he said, "and the way to do that is to expand human civilization off the planet."
    • LAST LINE OF ASTEROID IMPACT DEFENSE: EVACUATION - May 13, 2011
      Imagine that we've detected an asteroid barrelling toward Earth. It's too late to blow it up, or nudge it off course, so the most effective form of asteroid deflection method is about to come into play: getting hit. Although death and destruction isn't a particularly desirable outcome, doing nothing may be the only plan we have left.
      So, what can be done to make this bad day better? Apart from throwing the mother of all doomsday parties, with the help of a system developed by Charlotte Norlund, an astronautics PhD student from the University of Southampton, we might be able to save some lives.
      To put it bluntly, NEOMiSS calculates how many people will perish after taking various factors into consideration, such as historical knowledge of a variety of natural hazards and local building strength.
      Somebody is worried
    • WHAT'S HITTING EARTH? - March 1, 2011
    • NASA’S ALL SKY FIREBALL NETWORK
      The cameras have overlapping fields of view, which means that the same fireball can be detected by more than one camera. This allows us to calculate the height of the fireball and how fast it is going. We can even work out the orbit of the meteoroid responsible for creating the fireball, which gives us clues about whether it came from a comet or an asteroid. If the fireball is traveling slow enough, and makes it low enough, it is possible that it can survive to the ground as a meteorite
    • TOP TEN METEOR VIDEO CAPTURES.WMV
    • WHITE HOUSE ADVISER: US MUST PREPARE FOR ASTEROID - Oct 25, 2010
    • SCIENTISTS TO DISCUSS WAYS TO DEAL WITH AN ASTEROID IMPACT - Oct 22, 2010
      The workshop series is focusing on plans and recommendations for global coordination and response in the event that an asteroid or other object is found to pose an impact threat to Earth," says workshop coordinator Detlef Koschny from ESA.
    • STARTING ON PLANETARY DEFENSE - October 27, 2010
      It is unlikely that anytime soon an asteroid or comet will impact Earth and cause devastating or large-scale damage. But we will probably soon find some object that is deemed potentially hazardous, one that might pose a future danger to Earth. That will be considered a threat.
    • POSSIBLE THREAT TO EARTH BY ASTEROIDS AMONG ISSUES AT UN DEBATE ON OUTER SPACE - Oct 15 2010
      A United Nations working group is currently looking into how the UN should respond to possible threats to the planet from near-earth objects, such as asteroids, Mazlan Othman, the Director of the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), told reporters at UN Headquarters in New York on October 14 2010, the UN News Service said.
      She said the Vienna-based Committee is also discussing space debris, among other issues, and long-term sustainability of space exploration.
      "Any space debris is very dangerous not only to satellites but also to human life because of the International Space Station," Othman said.
      Other topics on the Committee’s agenda include benefits of space technology, space and water, and space and climate change.
    • PANIC UPON CUE- THE COMING ICE AGE? (In Search of Series) - 10.18.2010 - Three Videos
      Perhaps Ice was scarier than heated-planet-stuff back when this series was made. Who knows? Either way - take a good look at the "science" - the "facts" - the "experts" -
      Were they all wrong? If so were they fired for being so wrong? If they were wrong - what was done by their supporting organizations to correct the problem? What problem? The disconnect with the religion called "global warming."
    • NASA URGED TO CONSIDER PLANET 'DEFENSE' - Oct. 19, 2010
      NASA should establish a Planetary Defense Coordination Office to lead efforts should the Earth be threatened by asteroids and comets, a U.S. report says.
      The report, by the Ad-Hoc Task Force on Planetary Defense of the NASA Advisory Council, offers suggestions on how the agency should prepare to lead national and international plans for defending Earth from collisions from near-Earth objects, SPACE.com reported Tuesday.
      The "driving philosophy" behind the national and international defense against near-Earth objects, the report said, should be to "find them early."
      Early detection is paramount in mounting an effective and cost-effective planetary defense effort, the report said.
      Work Fast!
    • CONGRESS PROPOSES COMMISSION TO STUDY ASTEROID IMPACT THREAT - 19 July 2010
      Last month, Representative Dana Rohrabacher (R – CA) introduced the new bill before Congress, H.R. 5587, titled: "To establish a United States Commission on Planetary Defense and for other purposes."
      The bill has been referred to the Committee on Science and Technology, on which Rohrabacher serves as a member. Both sides of the aisle are now looking at the commission idea.
      One function of the proposed seven-member commission is to assess the current ability of United States and foreign technology to defend our planet. Technologies that could aid the fight against a NEO threat include modeling and simulation capabilities, as well as nuclear devices, high order explosive systems, and laser systems.
      The bill also requests a budget "not to exceed" $2 million for the commission.
      From his view, Rohrabacher concluded: "We know the threats are real. Earth has been hit many times with devastation ranging from local to regional, and even to planetary scales. It is just a matter of time until the threat appears again, and we must be ready."
    • NEW AND OLD OBSERVATIONS BOLSTER ASTEROID WORRIES - May 1, 2010
      Cornell University astronomers announced last week that they tracked a near- Earth object (NEO) named 2005 YU55 as it skimmed within 1.5 million miles of our planet last April 19. The giant radio antenna at Arecibo, Puerto Rico measured the intruder’s size at a planet-walloping 1,300 feet in diameter (pictured above).
    • BEATING BACK SPACE INVADERS - April 11, 2010
      Giant rocks or snowballs in space, while more likely to hit in Hollywood than anywhere else on Earth, remain a threat that policymakers are taking seriously.
      Hand-wringing over civilization-ending asteroid impacts has taken a back seat to health care, the economy and this winter’s weather.
      Some 170 Earth-impact craters have been documented. The largest, the 300 kilometer-wide Vredefort crater in South Africa, is 2 billion years old.
      An object with a diameter of 3 kilometers that hits Earth is thought to be the threshold for global catastrophe. Fortunately, these hit roughly only every 10 to 30 million years
      That excludes long-period comets, such as Halley’s, which they estimate represent 1 percent of the total impact threat. Such comets, some taking 200 years or more to orbit the sun are capable of sneaking up on us.
    • AN AVALANCHE OF DARK ASTEROIDS - March 26, 2010
      "Our instrument is finding [dozens] of asteroids every day that were never detected before," says Ned Wright, principal investigator for WISE and a physicist at the University of California in Los Angeles. "WISE is very good at this kind of work."
      Visible-light telescopes conducting past asteroid surveys may have missed a large population of darker asteroids that WISE is now flushing out of hiding. Most of the asteroids WISE is finding are in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, but a fraction of them are different. They're the kind of Earth- approaching asteroids that send shivers all the way down a Brontosaurus' spine.
      "WISE has only been in orbit for about three months, but we've already found a handful of asteroids classified as 'potentially hazardous,' including one seen in 1996 but lost until re-observed by WISE. To be named 'potentially hazardous,' an asteroid has to pass within about 5 million miles of Earth's orbit. One of our discoveries will cross Earth's orbit less than 700,000 miles away."
      WISE's contribution to the total will be impressive. Between now and late October, when the mission is slated to end, Wright estimates the observatory will find a hundred thousand asteroids, mostly in the main belt, and hundreds of near Earth objects.
      Is somebody anticipating an impact threat this year 2010? 7 October +/- 6 days is the last threat period for 2010
    • NEW SPACECRAFT DISCOVERS HUNDREDS OF ASTEROIDS ... EVERY DAY - 26 March 2010
      NASA launched the $320 million WISE observatory in December. The space telescope is expected to complete its first all-sky map during its first six months of its mission.
    • DARK, DANGEROUS ASTEROIDS FOUND LURKING NEAR EARTH - 05 March 2010
      An infrared space telescope has spotted several very dark asteroids that have been lurking unseen near Earth's orbit. Their obscurity and tilted orbits have kept them hidden from surveys designed to detect things that might hit our planet.
      "It's really good at finding the darkest asteroids and comets," said mission team member Amy Mainzer of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston, Texas, on Thursday.
      Richard Binzel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology says the dark asteroids may be former comets that have long since had all the ice vaporised from their exteriors, leaving them with inactive surfaces that no longer shed dust to produce tails. He points out that many comets have very tilted orbits, and comets visited by spacecraft have been observed to have very dark surfaces.
      Vulcan, the dark star or brown dwarf companion to the Sun forms four or five comet swarms that pass by near Earth's orbit. Their orbital period is about 3300 +/- a few hundred years and the swarms' orbits are usually inclined to the ecliptic, but the inclination is cranked up and down quite a bit over time. Adangerous comet swarm is anticipated to pass by in the next 5 years or so, if it has not already done so (the Indonesian air burst). These swarms have been with us for many hundreds of thousands (or even millions) of years. The WISE infra red satellite telescope may well have been put up to see these comets coming.
    • NASA COULD BE CLOSE TO PROVING THE EXISTENCE OF A "DEATH STAR" IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM - Mar 15, 2010
      We've always assumed our sun was the only star in our solar system, but maybe not. We could be in a binary system, with a brown dwarf hiding in the Oort cloud. And it could be bombing us with comets.
      The comets are coming from the Kuiper belt.
    • WILL THE NASA WISE SPACE TELESCOPE FIND NEMESIS, A BINARY COMPANION STAR FOR THE SUN? - March 16, 2010
    • GETTING WISE ABOUT NEMESIS - 03/11/10
      Is our Sun part of a binary star system? An unseen companion star, nicknamed “Nemesis,” may be sending comets towards Earth. If Nemesis exists, NASA’s new WISE telescope should be able to spot it.
      That job should have been done by the IRAS satellite.. I guess the IRAS team missed it.
    • UNUSED NASA TOWER EPITOMIZES BREWING FIGHT OVER SPACE BUDGET - 03/28/10
      Obama, with the support of NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, argue the end of the Constellation program would free up more federal dollars for use in research and development.
      Both Earth and near-by space may be a dangerous place if a comet swarm passes and Earth suffers a major impact.
    • RUSSIA MAY SEND SPACECRAFT TO KNOCK AWAY ASTEROID - Dec 30, 2009
    • HOLDREN: ICE AGE WILL KILL 1 BILLION - October 09, 2009
      Obama's science chief blames man-made carbon emissions
      Holdren based his prediction on a theory that human emissions of carbon dioxide would produce a climate catastrophe in which global warming would cause global cooling with a consequent reduction in agricultural production resulting in widespread disaster.
    • WHAT HAPPENED TO GLOBAL WARMING? - 9 October 2009
      This headline may come as a bit of a surprise, so too might that fact that the warmest year recorded globally was not in 2008 or 2007, but in 1998.
      But it is true. For the last 11 years we have not observed any increase in global temperatures. The 1970 heat surge due to the core rotation of the Earth in 1970 has abated.
    • CLIMATE CHANGE EXCUSE FOR US MILITARY INTERVENTION? - Aug 09, 2009
      The aftereffects of the changes like wholesale population movements and pandemics would trigger conflicts that could dent local governments thus necessitating US military intervention, said the New York Times on Saturday quoting military and intelligence pundits.
      The interviewees raised concerns about ensuing 'terrorist movements' and regional destabilization. The daily said the changes could turn "sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and South and Southeast Asia" to actual flashpoints.
      Accordingly, the Defense Department envisioned a contingency plan including "sophisticated Navy and Air Force weather programs and other government climate research programs at NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration."
      Comet/Meteorite impacts cause climate change.
    • CLIMATE CHANGE SEEN AS THREAT TO U.S. SECURITY - August 8, 2009
      The changing global climate will pose profound strategic challenges to the United States in coming decades, raising the prospect of military intervention to deal with the effects of violent storms, drought, mass migration and pandemics, military and intelligence analysts say.
      Such climate-induced crises could topple governments, feed terrorist movements or destabilize entire regions, say the analysts, experts at the Pentagon and intelligence agencies who for the first time are taking a serious look at the national security implications of climate change.
      THE COMET'S TALE: EARTH IMPACT
    • NATIONAL GUARD ASKED TO EXPLAIN 'INTERNMENT' JOBS - August 07, 2009
      Campaign recruiting for workers at 'civilian resettlement facility'
    • JOB TITLE: CORRECTIONS OFFICER – Internment/Resettlement Specialist
      Hmmmm!
    • MILITARY HUSH-UP: INCOMING SPACE ROCKS NOW CLASSIFIED - 10 June 2009
      A recent U.S. military policy decision now explicitly states that observations by hush-hush government spacecraft of incoming bolides and fireballs are classified secret and are not to be released, SPACE.com has learned.
      The upshot: Space rocks that explode in the atmosphere are now classified.
      "It's baffling to us why this would suddenly change," said one scientist familiar with the work. "It's unfortunate because there was this great synergy...a very good cooperative arrangement. Systems were put into dual-use mode where a lot of science was getting done that couldn't be done any other way. It's a regrettable change in policy."
      Scientists say not only will research into the threat from space be hampered, but public understanding of sometimes dramatic sky explosions will be diminished, perhaps leading to hype and fear of the unknown.
    • EARTH UNDER THREAT FROM DARK COMETS - 16 February 2009
      But dark comets with unpredictable orbits may pose a greater threat than asteroids, which are easier to spot, according to astrophysicists Bill Napier, from the Cardiff Centre for Astrobiology in Wales, and David Asher, from Armagh Observatory in Northern Ireland.
    • Doomsday: U.S. REPORT WARNS OF 'STRATEGIC SHOCK' LEADING TO MASSIVE UNREST - December 15, 2008

      The report by the U.S. Army War College's Strategic Institute, said that a defense community paralyzed by conventional thinking could be unprepared to help the United States cope with a series of unexpected crises that would rival the Al Qaida strikes in 2001, termed a "strategic shock."
      The report cited the prospect of the collapse of a nuclear state leading to massive unrest in the United States.
      "Widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security," the report, authored by [Ret.] Lt. Col. Nathan Freir, said.
      "Deliberate employment of weapons of mass destruction or other catastrophic capabilities, unforeseen economic collapse, loss of functioning political and legal order, purposeful domestic resistance or insurgency, pervasive public health emergencies, and catastrophic natural and human disasters are all paths to disruptive domestic shock."
    • 'DARK' COMETS MAY POSE THREAT TO EARTH - 11 February 2009
      These periodic comet showers appear to correlate with the dates of ancient impact craters found on Earth, which would suggest that most impactors in the past were comets, not asteroids.
    • 'DARK' COMETS COULD HIT EARTH WITHOUT WARNING - February 13, 2009
      Hazardous comets and asteroids are tracked by various space agencies, but British-based astronomers say there are many dangerous ones still going undetected, New Scientist magazine reported.
      "There is a case to be made that dark, dormant comets are a significant but largely unseen hazard," said Bill Napier at Cardiff University.
      Napier and David Asher, at Armagh Observatory, say dark comets may still be in the solar system, and could come near Earth.
      Dark comets happen when a comet's reflective water ice evaporates away, and leaves behind an organic crust.
      Since the water's gone, they don't reflect light, making it hard for astronomers to see them until they're right on top of us.
    • STEPHEN HAWKING: "ASTEROID IMPACTS BIGGEST THREAT TO INTELLIGENT LIFE IN THE GALAXY" - June 26, 2009
      “The threat of the Earth being hit by an asteroid is increasingly being accepted as the single greatest natural disaster hazard faced by humanity,” according to Nick Bailey of the University of Southampton's School of Engineering Sciences team, who has developed a threat identifying program.[
      Early results indicate that in terms of population lost, China, Indonesia, India, Japan and the United States face the greatest overall threat; while the United States, China, Sweden, Canada and Japan face the most severe economic effects due to the infrastructure destroyed.
      As Stephen Hawking says, the general consensus is that any comet or asteroid greater than 20 kilometers in diameter that strikes the Earth will result in the complete annihilation of complex life - animals and higher plants.
    • UN IS TOLD THAT EARTH NEEDS AN ASTEROID SHIELD - December 7 2008
      A group of the world's leading scientists has urged the United Nations to establish an international network to search the skies for asteroids on a collision course with Earth. The spaceguard system would also be responsible for deploying spacecraft that could destroy or deflect incoming objects.
      The group - which includes the Royal Society president Lord Rees and environmentalist Crispin Tickell - said that the UN needed to act as a matter of urgency. Although an asteroid collision with the planet is a relatively remote risk, the consequences of a strike would be devastating.
      Work Fast!
    • NATIONAL SECURITY AND HOMELAND SECURITY PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVE - May 9, 2007
      NATIONAL SECURITY PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVE/NSPD 51
      HOMELAND SECURITY PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVE/HSPD-20
      (b) "Catastrophic Emergency" means any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions;
      (c) "Continuity of Government," or "COG," means a coordinated effort within the Federal Government's executive branch to ensure that National Essential Functions continue to be performed during a Catastrophic Emergency;
      (e) "Enduring Constitutional Government," or "ECG," means a cooperative effort among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the Federal Government, coordinated by the President, as a matter of comity with respect to the legislative and judicial branches and with proper respect for the constitutional separation of powers among the branches, to preserve the constitutional framework under which the Nation is governed and the capability of all three branches of government to execute constitutional responsibilities and provide for orderly succession, appropriate transition of leadership, and interoperability and support of the National Essential Functions during a catastrophic emergency;
      (h) "National Essential Functions," or "NEFs," means that subset of Government Functions that are necessary to lead and sustain the Nation during a catastrophic emergency and that, therefore, must be supported through COOP and COG capabilities; and
      (f) Provision must be made for reconstitution capabilities that allow for recovery from a catastrophic emergency and resumption of normal operations;
    • NATIONAL SECURITY PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVES [NSPD] - George W. Bush Administration
      NSPD 51 National Continuity Policy 4 April 2007
      HSPD 20 National Continuity Policy 4 April 2007
      Six months before the 5 October Camelopardalids debris field intersects Earth's orbit.
    • GIULIANI CREATES 'CATASTROPHE COMMITTEE,' APPOINTS BUSH LOYALIST AS ITS HEAD - January 10, 2008 06:30 PM
      Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign announced on Thursday the formulation of a Catastrophe Advisory Committee, designed to provide the former New York City mayor with advice on the needs of local communities in regards to catastrophe response.
    • WORLD'S BIGGEST DIGITAL CAMERA TO JOIN ASTEROID SEARCH - 04 September 2007
      The world's largest digital camera has been installed on a new telescope designed to hunt for potentially dangerous asteroids.
      The camera was installed on the PS1 telescope in Maui, Hawaii, US, the first of four telescopes being built as part of a project called the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS).
      Starting in 2010, when all four of the planned Pan-STARRS telescopes are expected to be completed, the project will image the whole sky visible from Hawaii three times per month. This should allow it to detect objects 100 times fainter than current surveys, including 99% of the asteroids 300 metres or larger that come near Earth's orbit.
      The US Congress has asked NASA to identify 90% of the smaller objects – down to 140 metres across – by 2020, but NASA says it does not have the money to implement the search
    • COUNTRIES MOST AT RISK OF 'SMALL' ASTEROID IMPACT IDENTIFIED
      The software, called NEOimpactor, has been specifically developed for measuring the impact of 'small' asteroids under one kilometre in diameter, and early results indicate that the ten countries most at risk are China, Indonesia, India, Japan, the United States, the Philippines, Italy, the United Kingdom, Brazil and Nigeria.
      'The threat of the Earth being hit by an asteroid is increasingly being accepted as the single greatest natural disaster hazard faced by humanity,' comments Nick Bailey of the University of Southampton's School of Engineering Sciences,
    • UN URGED TO TAKE ACTION ON ASTEROID THREAT
      Although the odds of an impact by this particular asteroid are low, a recent congressional mandate for NASA to upgrade its tracking of near-Earth asteroids is expected to uncover hundreds, if not thousands of threatening space rocks in the near future, former astronaut Rusty Schweickart said.
    • GOVT. DOC: GIANT COMETS, EVOLUTION AND CIVILIZATION
      or
      Giant Comets, Evolution and Civilization
      Abstract: Climatic cycles, ice epochs, mass extinctions and other global disturbances may be attributed to episodes of bombardment by giant comets. Such bodies now in chaotic orbits beyond Jupiter present the most serious current celestial hazard. A point at issue is the greater complexity of the cometary as opposed to the asteroidal hazard, as well as its more pervasive effects.
    • DECLASSIFIED GOVT. DOC- HAZARDS DUE TO FIREBALLS-COMETS
      Narrative Report on the Hazard to Civilization Due to Fireballs and Comets
      Abstract: The 100,000 year average interval between asteroid strikes (Chapman & Morrison 1994) first became apparent during the 1970s. Another discovery of considerable moment about this time was that of object Chiron. Considered to be a "giant comet" and found to be moving in a chaotic orbit beyond Saturn close to the ecliptic (Kowal l979,Oikawa & Everhart 1978), the possibility of its future transfer to a more stable sub-Jovian orbit capable of penetrating near-Earth space and hence threatening the Earth was also soon recognized (Bailey et al 1994, Steel et al 1994). The report then is by way of being a flier delineating the current state of research (historical and scientific) concerning the cometary and fireball threat.
    • 'DOOMSDAY' VAULT DESIGN UNVEILED
      The vault aims to safeguard the world's agriculture from future catastrophes, such as nuclear war, asteroid strikes and climate change.
    • MOVE TO NEW PLANET, SAYS HAWKING
      human race must move to a planet beyond our Solar System to protect the future of the species, physicist Professor Stephen Hawking has warned.
      He told the BBC that life could be wiped out by a nuclear disaster or an asteroid hitting the planet.
      Vulcan's existence in our solar system places all the inner Earth like planets at risk of long period comet impacts. Vulcan draws Kiuper Belt objects into Sun grazing orbits, then they form comet swarms which cause the visible impact craters on Mars, Venus, Mercury, Earth and the Moon.
    • REPORT OF THE TASK FORCE ON POTENTIALLY HAZARDOUS NEAR EARTH OBJECTS
      A UK report! Could the USA and UK be working together again?
    • MAJOR IMPACT SOON - January 31, 2005: British MP says, "We're living in a bowling alley."
      I hope you will excuse my cynicism but there is something quite remarkable about this interview with Lembit Opik, the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Montgomeryshire. You will not find one single trace of political gobble-de-gook or point scoring.
    • US-EU PLAN TO “MOVE” EARTH ORBIT DOOMED, SAY RUSSIAN SCIENTISTS - August 26, 2009
      Bolstering Reagan’s knowledge of this “alien threat” was the 1983, 10-month mission of the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) joint telescope project of the United States (NASA), the Netherlands (NIVR), and the United Kingdom (SERC), and which confirmed the theories of many imminent scientists and researchers [Professor Richard Muller, UC Berkley; Walter Cruttenden, Binary Research Institute(BRI); Dr. Daniel Whitmire of the University of Louisiana, etc.] of our Solar System being binary in origin and possessing a brown dwarf “twin” to our Sun and of which was written about in the Washington Post on December 30, 1983:
      Russian scientists, however, describe as “sheer insanity” this plan of the West’s to make of our inner Solar System a “shooting gallery” of comets under the guise of protecting us from Global Warming, of which the West is still failing to fully inform its citizens is, in fact, occurring on all of the Planets.
    • SCIENCE'S DOOMSDAY TEAM VS. THE ASTEROIDS
      "The good news is that comets represent 1 percent of the danger," said Donald K. Yeomans, who manages NASA's Near-Earth Object Program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "The bad news is that should we find one, there's not a lot we can do about it. . . . We detect them only nine months from impact."
      Asteroids, by contrast, generally offer decades or even centuries of warning - unless they are too small to detect, in which case there is no warning at all. But today's technology enables astronomers to get a fix on any asteroid capable of causing a global "extinction event" - six miles in diameter or bigger.
      So, what can be done? The first thought, dramatically depicted in the 1998 movies "Deep Impact" and "Armageddon," is to nuke the intruder into small pieces so it will burn up in Earth's atmosphere.
      Many scientists say, however, that this is unacceptably sloppy - instead of obliterating the target, the bomb could break the asteroid into large radioactive chunks capable of transforming huge stretches of Earth into wasteland.
    • WHAT SHOULD U.S. MILITARY DO IN SPACE?
      White House strategy shift sparks heated debate
    • CALIFORNIA AND THE WORLD AT RISK
      1. THE PENTAGON WARNINGS
      2. THE CALIFORNIA GOVERNMENT RESPONDS
        • GOV. SCHWARZENEGGER HIGHLIGHTS COMPLETED LEVEE REPAIRS, PRESSES FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FOR REIMBURSEMENT FOR WORK ON FEDERAL LEVEES 10/20/2006
          Gov. Schwarzenegger highlighted the completion of the repairs on the critical levee erosion sites before the next flood season.
          "This site and all 29 critical erosion sites we identified in February will be repaired by November 1, just like we planned and the four other critical sites we identified in August are on track to be repaired by November 30," said Gov. Schwarzenegger. "These repairs protect lives and homes which is why we negotiated with the federal government to cut through the red tape and get the necessary permits to start strengthening our levees as soon as possible. Our actions shaved years off the repair times. That's why we can have these finished now before the rains start."
          The Department of Water Resources pledged to finish the levee repair work on the original 29 critical erosion sites by November and much of the levee repair work was completed ahead of schedule. The repairs on 12 of the 29 critical levee sites identified in the Governor's February emergency declaration are complete, and the remaining 17 sites will be finished by November 1. An additional four sites discovered subsequent to those identified originally identified will also be completed by the end of November.
          In February, the Governor declared a state of emergency for California's levee system. Since then, state and federal agencies have cooperated in an unprecedented manner to expedite the permits and begin work on these critical repairs.
          As part of the bipartisan Strategic Growth plan, the November ballot includes a $4.1 billion bond for levee repair and flood control.
          Comet impacts (anticipated in 2007) can generate a lot of rain.
        • GOVENOR HASTENS CALIF. LEVEE REPAIRS
          Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency Friday for California's levee system, a step officials said would help speed up repairs to 24 flood- prone sites.
          Officials said the declaration would allow the state to waive environmental and contracting laws in making the repairs and open up emergency funding as part of an attempt to complete the work before next winter's flood season.
          "If we did this through normal funding and normal procedures it probably would take us three to four years," said Lester Snow, director of the Department of Water Resources.
        • ATTEMPT TO PLACE PUBLIC WORKS BOND ON JUNE BALLOT FAILS
          "We ran out of time," Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata said, after the Senate passed an urgency bill appropriating $1 billion for levee repairs from the state's reserve fund.
          The Assembly passed two bills to place measures on the June ballot: a $10.4 billion bond to build schools and upgrade universities, and a $4.15 billion bond to repair the state's fragile levee system. It also included a $9.1 billion school and university bond measure that would be placed on a ballot in 2008.
          The Senate considered only the emergency levee appropriation, which passed on a 33-0 vote.
          Many Republican and Democratic lawmakers were concerned about the size of Schwarzenegger's original borrowing plan. He later proposed adding another $3.5 billion for levee repairs after he said it was unlikely the federal government would offer substantial financial help.
          Not to worry, the levee repairs will start.
        • LEVEES OVERTOP IN CALIF.'S SONOMA COUNTY - Mon Mar 6, 9:45 PM ET
          SCHELLVILLE, Calif. - A storm that dumped about two inches of rain in Sonoma County overnight flooded part of a highway for several hours as water overtopped nearby levees, officials said.
          No damage to homes or businesses was reported, said Sandy Covallalves, a Sonoma County emergency services coordinator.
          Political cover!
        • GOVERNOR SEEKS FAST LEVEE FIXES
          Some call state of emergency political ploy -- move nullifies environmental regulations
        • ASSEMBLY PASSES RECORD PUBLIC WORKS BOND PACKAGE
          Flood Protection -- $4.09 billion
          • $3 billion for levee inspection, repair, flood control improvements, and delta levee protection;
          • $500 million for flood control subventions;
          • $290 million for flood corridors, bypasses, and flood plain mapping; and
          • $300 million for storm flood management.
        • LARGEST INFRASTRUCTURE BOND EVER HEADING TO CALIFORNIA VOTERS
          Headed to the governor, then the voters, November ballot is the largest bond issue ever -- four bonds totaling $37.3 billion, consisting of billions for transportation, schools, levees, and affordable housing.
          "Besides the bond packages, lawmakers passed an added $500 million appropriation for levee repairs.
        • WOLK CALLS BOND DEAL 'A BIG WIN FOR YOLO AND SOLANO COUNTIES'
          The flood protection component includes $3 billion for levee inspection, repair, flood control improvements, and delta levee protection; and $290 million for flood corridors, bypasses, and flood plain mapping. Finally, there is $300 million for storm flood management, which would fund work on flood infrastructure outside of the Central Valley, including some in Solano County. Part of the $300 million could go towards preventing urban runoff and protecting water quality in Fairfield and Vacaville, hard hit in the recent New Year flooding.
          Additionally, the Assembly approved a $500 million (AB 142) appropriation, actively pursued by Wolk, which includes money for the immediate repair of the 29 critical erosion sites designated by the Governor, including 9 sites in Yolo County. Private levees such as Huff's Corner that could affect urban areas will also be eligible. The $500 million could also be used on other flood improvements throughout Yolo and Solano Counties.
          "This bond will make a difference in the lives of all Californians, not just those in the Central Valley. Since the State suffers liability for failing levees in the Central Valley, the General Fund stands at risk," said Wolk, who has led the development and coordination of a comprehensive Assembly Democratic Legislative Package on Flood Protection to prepare and protect Californians. "That means California's schools, health services, and highways stand at risk. "Think of the billions that the Federal Government has spent on recovery from Katrina. Now imagine a major flood in Sacramento, with the State – not the Federal Government – stuck with the bill for recovery. And more than the Sacramento Valley and General Fund is at stake here. A serious flood could take out the water supply for Southern California, for the Bay Area, and for the San Joaquin Valley.
        • WATERSHED NEWS FOR MAY 2006
          • Schwarzenegger/Fed Government Reach Agreement to Fix Critical Levee Sites Before Flood Season [Press release] Gov. Schwarzenegger and the Bush Administration finalized an agreement yesterday that provides an expedited permitting process to allow California to fix the critical levee sites by the end of the year.
          • Levee repair accord reached An agreement announced Tuesday between state and federal agencies ensures that 29 eroding levees will be fixed by Nov. 1, officials said, and it also ensures the state gets credit for its share of the costs
          • Deal puts levee repair on fast track Agreement will speed up environmental review necessary to begin work on Sacramento River tributaries -- not Delta
          • Levee funds increased in Senate bill An Oklahoma Republican senator, facing certain defeat on an amendment to strip levee-repair money along the Sacramento River from an emergency spending bill, abruptly withdrew it Wednesday as California's two Democrats announced that they had secured another $13 million in the measure
          • Schwarzenegger's new levee board shows its pro-developer tilt [Commentary] The Reclamation Board voted to allow the developer of an immense subdivision on a Delta island south of Stockton to begin widening the existing levee and - ignoring warnings from the board's attorney that it was violating state open-meeting laws - expanded the developer's permit to indirectly allow construction of luxury, riverview homes atop the widened levee
      3. THE CALIFORNIA DANGER APPROACHES
        • DRAMATIC SATELLITE IMAGE SHOWS HUGE STORMS HEADING TOWARD L.A - December 20, 2010
          A northern cold front is expected to move into the Los Angeles basin Monday afternoon, mashing up with subtropical moisture that has been sitting off the Pacific coast for several days.
        • SCIENTISTS CITE "ATMOSPHERIC RIVER" FOR NEAR CONTINUOUS RAIN - , Dec 22, 2010
          It has happened before. Consider the winter of 1861-1862 -- it rained for 45 consecutive days.
          See also: GOVERNOR SEEKS FAST LEVEE FIXES - February 25, 2006
          Some call state of emergency political ploy -- move nullifies environmental regulations
        • THE CALIFORNIA 'BIG ONE' MAY BE A FLOOD - 14 Jan 2011
        • WALLS OF WATER 10FT HIGH IN A MONTH-LONG MEGA HURRICANE: CALIFORNIA TOLD TO PREPARE FOR BIBLICAL 'ARkStorm' - 17th January 2011
          The U.S. Geological Survey has now begun planning for the return of the ARkStorm, so named after the boat Noah used to escape the flood in the Bible. The capped-up 'A' and 'R' stand for 'atmospheric river'.
        • SCIENTISTS WARN CALIFORNIA COULD BE STRUCK BY WINTER ‘SUPERSTORM’ - Jan 17, 2011
          It sounds like the plot of an apocalyptic action movie, but scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey warned federal and state emergency officials that California's geological history shows such "superstorms" have happened in the past,
          Even larger storms happened in past centuries, over the dates 212, 440, 603, 1029, 1418, and 1605, according to geological evidence
          The storm would be goaded on by an "atmospheric river" that would move water "at the same rate as 50 Mississippis discharging water into the Gulf of Mexico,"
        • Overview of the ARkStorm Scenario - U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2010-1312
          In many cases flooding overwhelms the state’s flood-protection system, which is typically designed to resist 100- to 200-year runoffs. The Central Valley experiences hypothetical flooding 300 miles long and 20 or more miles wide. Serious flooding also occurs in Orange County, Los Angeles County, San Diego, the San Francisco Bay area, and other coastal communities. Windspeeds in some places reach 125 miles per hour, hurricane-force winds. Across wider areas of the state, winds reach 60 miles per hour. Hundreds of landslides damage roads, highways, and homes.
        • RIVERS IN THE SKY - February 26th, 2011
          Atmospheric bands of water vapor can cause flooding and extreme weather
          Atmospheric rivers are born because of temperature differences between Earth’s tropics and its poles. During winter, a pole cools compared with the equator, creating a strong temperature gradient across the hemisphere, a difference that causes low-pressure storms to spin off in the midlatitudes.
    • MORE OFFICIAL WARNINGS
      • COSMIC COLLISIONS-ASTEROID IMPACT DOCUMENTARY - Feb 15, 2013
        Right now, massive meteors and asteroids are orbiting dangerously close to Earth. Some may even be poised to hit us in the foreseeable future! Where are they?
        What type of damage will they cause? What can we do stop a caroming asteroid that's headed toward us, or prevent future Near Earth Objects from lining us up in their sites.
        They have left deep scars all over the face of our planet and are responsible for one of the biggest extinctions in history. Scientists believe that its not a question of if they'll strike again, but when.
        Could an asteroid impact with Earth wipe out the human race? Known Universe explores what is being done to prevent such an Armageddon by heading to the first line of asteroid defense: the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory in Arizona.
        Here we see the technologies used to monitor the skies for near-Earth objects, including a football stadium-sized rock that will pass close to Earth on Friday the 13th, April 2029. Scientists predict it may be so close that gravity could cause a catastrophic collision.
      • ILLUMINATI REVEAL CRAZY APOCALYPTIC AGENDA - 12-28-8
        Using the moniker "Hidden Hand," he gave a convincing explanation of the demented Cabalistic beliefs motivating the Illuminati. He described how they find this world consciousness ("Third Density") to be "very constricting and uncomfortable" and want to be united again with Lucifer ("the One," the "Creator.") This will require them to stage an apocalyptic human sacrifice ("harvest of souls") in 2012.
        At the "Harvest" evolved souls will enter the "Fourth Density" with the Illuminati and enjoy a "Golden Age," while everyone else's soul will be transported to a "replica earth" where they will continue to "work on themselves." The scenario is reminiscent of the "Left Behind" series where Christians suddenly disappear into heaven, and non-believers are left behind to face the Tribulation. I don't think this is a coincidence.
        "There will be dramatic changes to your climate and weather conditions over the next few years, as the time of the Great Harvest approaches. You will see wind speeds surpassing 300 miles per hour at times. There will be raging tsunamis and widespread devastation; and a solar emission in late 2009 early 2010 that will cause major melting of the ice caps, and subsequent drastic rise in sea levels, leaving many (international) metropolitan areas underwater....San Francisco and Damascus, will be uninhabitable by the end of 2010, possibly even sooner. Again, it depends upon certain 'forces' at play, and which time lines are activated. Humanity, though utterly unconscious of the fact, has a significant part to play in this. You (as a collective consciousness of the planet) are choosing the Negative Polarization by default, by the quality of your thoughts and actions. Thought is creative energy, focused. You get exactly what you put out."
        In his own terms, "Hidden Hand" is credible but I regard him as insane, pretending to purity and talking about "service to others" while wreaking untold misery and mayhem on humanity. He offers invaluable insight into the hypocritical Illuminati mindset, always dressing their evil in pretensions of public service. For example, Communism is Satanism posing as working class rebellion.
        A little wierd, but Henry Makow Ph.D. has offered cogent articles in the past. Also see Window of Opportunity. The "service to others" sounds a bit like the Cassiopaea web site that is predicting a comet impact in the 2006 to 2012 (12 to 18 years (from 1994)) time frame.
      • INVESTORS BET ON LONDON FLOOD
        AN insurance firm is offering investors the chance to bet against a catastrophic flood devastating London.
        German insurer Allianz has issued the bond to protect itself against the risk of flooding due to the levels of claims from homes and businesses which could arise from such an incident.
        London's Thames Barrier currently protects the capital against flooding up to a once in every 2,000 years catastrophe.
        Large comet/meteorite impacts can cause lots of flooding, ask Noah!
      • APOCALYPSE NOW? IRANIAN PRESIDENT AHMADINEJAD'S LETTER TO PRESIDENT BUSH
        Personally, I am humbled by these events. For the first time in my entire life I am catching glimpses of what I can only describe as the "end times." Tel Aviv, by the way, is not too far from the valley of Megiddo, where the apocalyptic battle of Armageddon is prophesied to take place in Revelation 16:16 (see also Revelation 20.7-10).
      • CLIMATE EXTREMES ARE COMING, STUDY SAYS
      • CLIMATE CHANGE 'WILL CAUSE REFUGEE CRISIS'
        The report, from the aid agency Tearfund, raises the spectre of hundreds of millions of environmental refugees and says the main reason will be the effects of climate - from droughts and water shortages, from flooding and storm surges and from sea-level rise.
      • HAWKING: COLONISE MARS TO SURVIVE
        The survival of the human race depends on its ability to find new homes elsewhere in the universe because there is an increasing risk that a disaster will destroy Earth, Stephen Hawking has said.
      • 93% OF ALL US NAVY SHIPS SAID AT SEA - WHY?
        Perhaps a practice deployment for an impending comet impact a few years in the future? Military actions are sure to accompany a major impact event as people relocated due to climatic change.
      • TEN US NAVY CARRIERS NOW AT SEA - ONLY TWO IN PORT
      • MORE ON US NAVY MASS DEPLOYMENT
      • DON'T MENTION THE WAR: BBC PLAN FOR SURVIVING NUCLEAR ARMAGEDDON
        In the event of all-out nuclear war, the BBC was to distract the nation by broadcasting a mix of music and light entertainment shows, secret papers released by the Home Office reveal.
        A similar policy may be expected in the event of a comet impact.
      • WHITE HOUSE ASKS TO CALL UP TROOPS FOR DISASTER AID
        The federal government should be able to deploy troops to deal with major disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and, in "extraordinary circumstances," should take over the entire operation from states and localities, the White House said yesterday.
      • FEMA PREPARING FOR CATASTROPHIC NEW MADRID EQ
        Pawlowski told a congressional committee that FEMA has "significant concerns" for the potential of a catastrophic earthquake equal in magnitude to those that struck parts of the Mississippi River Valley in 1811-1812, and again in 1895. The estimated magnitude of those earthquakes is 7.5 or 8. The probability of a magnitude 6 or larger earthquake is 25 percent to 50 percent over the next 50 years.
        Pawlowski said FEMA expects to have a regional response plan in place by June 2007. Just in time.
      • RUSSIAN SCIENTISTS FORECAST GLOBAL COOLING IN 6-9 YEARS
        Khabibullo Abdusamatov said he and his colleagues had concluded that a period of global cooling similar to one seen in the late 17th century — when canals froze in the Netherlands and people had to leave their dwellings in Greenland — could start in 2012-2015 and reach its peak in 2055-2060.
        He said he believed the future climate change would have very serious consequences and that authorities should start preparing for them today because "climate cooling is connected with changing temperatures, especially for northern countries."
        these values agree nicely with our predicted impact dates,
        Are There Any Credible Precise Predictions
        given the ocean's cooling after impact in 10 to 15 years.
      • BRITISH SCIENTIST PUTS ODDS FOR APOCALYPSE AT 50-50
        Rees calculates that the odds of an apocalyptic disaster striking Earth have risen to about 50 percent from 20 percent a hundred years ago. The cosmologist concedes that natural disasters have always loomed -- so-called supervolcanoes could explode at any time and asteroids could slam into the planet, causing massive climate changes -- but says the most frightening risks are probably man- made. Now what would the recently knighted Royal Astronomer Rees be an expert in, manmade disasters or astronomical ones?
        • POTENTIALLY HAZARDOUS NEAR EARTH OBJECTS COMING TO YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD SOON
          Report of the Task Force on potentially hazardous NEAR EARTH OBJECTS
          However, our particular thanks go to the following people who have made substantial contributions to our understanding of the subject and in other ways:
          ... , Martin Rees, ...
        • REPORT OF THE TASK FORCE ON POTENTIALLY HAZARDOUS NEAR EARTH OBJECTS
          NEAR EARTH OBJECTS - Cover (front and back)
          SOLAR SYSTEM showing the Sun, the planets, the main belt of asteroids and the orbit of a typical comet (drawing not to scale). The planets are, counting from the Sun: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars (to the left), the giant planet Jupiter (to the right) and Saturn (top left,back cover). The comet, coming from the far reaches of the Solar System, is shown in two positions along its orbit. The comet's tail always points directly away from the Sun. The belt of asteroids contains about one million objects over 1kilometre in size. Some asteroids are deflected by Jupiter's gravitational field to become Near Earth Objects. A stony asteroid is shown at the bottom of the cover; it is covered with small craters by the impact of other asteroids over the ages.
          ... , Martin Rees, ...
      • NOW: HUMAN EXTINCTION WITHIN 100 YEARS WARNS SCIENTIST - 17 NOVEMBER 2004
        A top New Zealand researcher is using a prestigious award ceremony in Christchurch to warn that humans face extinction by the end of the century. Professor Peter Barrett will be presented with the Marsden Medal tonight for his 40-year contribution to Antarctic research, latterly focusing on climate change.
        • THEN: WHAT ICE AND SEDIMENT CORES TELL US ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE TODAY. - 22/10/2001
          But orbital changes take place over millennia and cannot explain the sudden changes in climate we are now experiencing in one century. Today, it is human activity – with the burning of fossil fuels and the destruction of carbon- absorbing soils and forests – which is filling the atmosphere with greenhouse gases and causing temperatures to rise and the climate to change. As Peter Barrett says: 'Changes in Earth's climate of this speed and magnitude are unprecedented to our knowledge, aside from large meteorite impacts.'
        • THEN: THE WEEK THAT WAS JUNE 22-28, 1998
          In fact, the chief scientist on the project, New Zealand geologist Peter Barrett, played down fears that "a deluge on a Biblical scale" (the latest activist buzz-phrase, courtesy of Fenton Communications) was imminent. Instead, Barrett made this rather amazing statement: "NO ONE thinks the ice sheets are going to melt in the next hundred years.
        • THEN: (METEOROBS) LONG... ANCIENT ASTEROID - 28 Nov 1997
          The researchers believe fallout from the steam and vapor cloud dropped micro-fossils directly on the mountains, an idea that geologist Peter Barrett at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, called "reasonably plausible."
        • THEN: BIG SPLASH: SCIENTISTS DESCRIBE ANCIENT ASTEROID IMPACT - November 28, 1997
          The fallout from the blast may explain the "Sirius enigma," the puzzle of why marine fossils are found high above sea level in the Transantarctic Mountains. The researchers believe fallout from the steam and vapor cloud dropped micro- fossils directly on the mountains, an idea that geologist Peter Barrett at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, called "reasonably plausible."
        • THEN: BIG SPLASH: SCIENTISTS DESCRIBE ASTEROID'S ANCIENT OCEAN PLUNGE - November 26, 1997
          The blast was well after the Northern Hemisphere's Ice Age began but "close to one of the strongest cooling events in this time period," the researchers' paper said.... The researchers believe fallout from the steam and vapor cloud dropped micro- fossils directly on the mountains, an idea that geologist Peter Barrett at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, called "reasonably plausible."
        • THEN: HOW TO HEAL THE AIR -
          The resulting increase in carbon dioxide is changing the atmosphere at "a speed and magnitude unprecedented to our knowledge, aside from large meteorite impacts," according to climate scientist Peter Barrett of the Antarctic Research Center in New Zealand.
      • THE THREAT FROM OUTER SPACE - Jul 23rd 2007
        Although the chance of an impact may be small in any given year, the consequences could be enormous. The effect of an impact depends on an object's size and speed. A meteorite a few metres wide could level a city. The largest (a kilometre or more in diameter) could wreak ecological havoc across the entire globe.
        Other plans have been suggested. One is to use a high-speed spaceship simply to ram the asteroid out of the way; another is to land a craft on the rock's surface and use its engines to manoeuvre the asteroid to safety. A subtler method is to park a spaceship nearby and use its tiny gravity to pull the asteroid gradually off course. For now, all such suggestions are theoretical, although the European Space Agency is planning a mission, named Don Quijote, to test the ramming tactic in 2011.
        But perhaps the biggest problem is humanity's indifference. Currently only America is spending any money on detection, and even there, politicians have other priorities. Much of the work is done by Cornell University's Arecibo radar in Puerto Rico, which is facing federal funding cuts. The telescope costs roughly $1m a year to operate. As an insurance policy for civilisation, the price looks cheap.
      • WHAT A WAY TO GO
        Super-volcano, robotic rebellion or terrorism? Kate Ravilious asks 10 scientists to name the biggest danger to Earth and assesses the chances of it happening. According to Sir Martin Rees, author of Our Final Century, astronomer royal and professor of cosmology and astrophysics at the University of Cambridge, humans only have a 50-50 chance of making it through the 21st century without serious setback. "Some natural threats, such as earthquakes and meteorite impacts, remain the same throughout time, while others are aggravated by our modern- interconnected world. But now we also need to consider threats that are human induced."

        So what are the greatest threats to humans and can we do anything about them? Below, 10 scientists talk about their greatest fears and explain how society could be affected. Afterwards we estimate each threat in two ways: first, the chance of it occurring in our lifetime (the next 70 years); and, second, the danger that it would pose to the human race if it did happen (10 = making humans extinct, to one = barely having an impact on our lives).

        Donald Yeomans is manager of Nasa's Near Earth Object Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California: "Over very long timescales, the risk of you dying as a result of a near-Earth object impact is roughly equivalent to the risk of dying in an aeroplane accident. To cause a serious setback to our civilisation, the impactor would have to be around 1.5 km wide or larger. We expect an event of this type every million years on average. The dangers associated with such a large impactor include an enormous amount of dust in the atmosphere, which would substantially shut down sunlight for weeks, thus affecting plant life and crops that sustain life. There would be global firestorms as a result of re-entering hot ejecta and severe acid rain. All of these effects are relatively short-term, so the most adaptable species (cockroaches and humans, for example) would be likely to survive."
        Chance of the Earth being hit by a large asteroid in the next 70 years: Medium
        Danger score: 5

        Professor Bill McGuire is director of the Benfield Hazard Research Centre at University College London and a member of Tony Blair's Natural Hazards working group: "Approximately every 50,000 years the Earth experiences a super-volcano. More than 1,000 sq km of land can be obliterated by pyroclastic ash flows, the surrounding continent is coated in ash and sulphur gases are injected into the atmosphere, making a thin veil of sulphuric acid all around the globe and reflecting back sunlight for years to come. Daytime becomes no brighter than a moonlit night.

        Chance of a super-volcano in the next 70 years: Very high
        Danger score: 7
        Large comet impacts and Super Volcano eruptions go hand in hand. Meteorite impacts occur quasi-periodically over several of millions of years once a Kuiper belt object is slowed by Vulcan and drawn into a 3:2 resonate orbit. However, the injection of a Kuiper belt object into such an orbit occurs randomly over hundreds of millions of years. So there is sustained periods of bombardment once the Kuiper belt object is drawn in. Noah's great flood is an indication that Earth is now in one of those several million year long periods.
      • COULD THE SUPERVOLCANO NIGHTMARE COME TRUE? It's the subject of a terrifying new TV drama.
        Deep below Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming lies a slumbering giant that could bring the world to an end when it finally awakes. Comet impacts can set off super volcanoes
      • THE SECRETS OF SUPERVOLCANOES
        Because the thick continental crust and heat sources needed to create such massive magma chambers are rare, supervolcanoes themselves are also uncommon. In the past two million years, a minimum of 750 cubic kilometers of magma has exploded all at once in only four regions: Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, Long Valley in California, Toba in Sumatra and Taupo in New Zealand. The search for similarly large eruptions continues in other areas of thick continental crust, including in western South America and far eastern Russia.
      • ASTEROID-WATCHERS WORRY ABOUT COSMIC KATRINA
        The U.S. Congress amended the Space Act in 2005 to charge NASA with responsibility to "detect, track, catalog and characterize" NEOs wider than 460 feet (140 meters) in diameter.
      • THE COSMIC TIMEBOMB
        The asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs was thrown to Earth in a moment of 'planetary madness'. And scientists can now predict when the heavens will go haywire again, says Marcus Chown.
        Don't worry, be happy
      • EXPERTS CALL FOR EXPANDED ASTEROID SEARCH - March 09, 2005
      • NEAR-EARTH ASTEROIDS BUZZ THE US GOVERNMENT or
        NEAR-EARTH ASTEROIDS BUZZ THE US GOVERNMENT
      • GLOBAL WARMING APPROACHING POINT OF NO RETURN, WARNS LEADING CLIMATE EXPERT
      • COUNTDOWN TO GLOBAL CATASTROPHE
        Climate change: report warns point of no return may be reached in 10 years, leading to droughts, agricultural failure and water shortages
        Yes, but from an impact disaster, not global warming!
      • MEETING THE CLIMATE CHALLENGE?
      • MEETING THE CLIMATE CHALLENGE
        Rt Hon. Stephen Byers MPSen.
        Olympia Snowe(United Kingdom)
        (United States)
        Hon. Bob Carr MP (Australia)
        Professor John P Holdren (United States)
        Dr Martin Khor Kok-Peng (Malaysia)
        Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet MP (France)
        Dr Claude Martin (Switzerland)
        Professor Tony McMichael (Australia)
        Jonathon Porritt CBE (United Kingdom)
        Adair Turner (United Kingdom)
        Dr Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker MdB (Germany)
        Professor Ni Weidou (People's Republic of China)
        Hon. Timothy E Wirth (United States)
        Cathy Zoi (Australia)
        Scientific Advisor to the Taskforce Dr Rajendra K Pachauri (India)
      • SO SHALL WE REAP, by Colin Trudge Book: Hardback Penguin UK
        'Extraordinary ... required reading' Jonathon Porritt
        The universe at large is dangerous too: in particular, we share the sky with a swarm of wayward asteroids, and every now and again they encroach upon us. An asteroid the size of a small island, hitting Earth at 10,000 miles an hour (a modest relative speed by the standards of heavenly bodies) would strike the ocean bed like a rock in a puddle, as if the water was not there at all, send a tidal wave around the world as high as a small mountain and as fast as a jumbo jet, and propel us into an ice age that could last for centuries. There are plans to head off such disasters (including heroic and hugely expensive rockets to shove approaching asteroids into new trajectories), but in truth it's down to luck.
      • MELTDOWN BLAMED FOR BIG FREEZE
        or MELTDOWN BLAMED FOR BIG FREEZE
      • COULD GLOBAL WARMING TRIGGER MEGA-TSUNAMIS?
        or ALARM OVER DRAMATIC WEAKENING OF GULF STREAM
        Slowing of current by a third in 12 years could bring more extreme weather Temperatures in Britain likely to drop by one degree in next decade
      • TRIGGERING ABRUPT CLIMATE CHANGE
        Scaremongering at its best
        The favorite scenario of certain climate modelers, as Mr. Gagosian's, is one in which the North Atlantic oceanic "conveyor belt" and Gulf Stream are turned off, thereby turning Western Europe into Siberia. But more realistic models show that the warmer European temperatures are not set by the Gulf Stream but by the perturbation of the atmospheric circulation induced by the Rocky Mountains of the Western US [Seager, Richard. 2003. Quart. J Royal Meterorol. Soc]. Another model shows that even as there is a freshening of the North Atlantic, the conveyor belt is strengthened not weakened: Read the abstract:
        It is well know that global warming will not produce an Ice Age, but a comet impact could. This work repudiates the obvious, that global warming does not cause global cooling. However, it is not unreasonable to believe that those who prepared the Pentagon's climate change to an Ice Age report are well aware of the comet impact threat.
      • TRIGGERS TO CLIMATE CATASTROPHE
        His simulation -- entirely hypothetical -- of the Gulf Stream shutdown suggests that parts of Britain would be far colder than the so-called Little Ice Age of the 17th and 18th centuries, when winter "Frost Fairs" were held on the frozen River Thames. A comet impact is a good trigger.
      • CLIMATE CHANGE: THE SCIENCE ISN'T SETTLED
        We know nothing!
      • 'STEALTH' COMETS POSE UNSEEN THREAT & WARNING OVER 'STEALTH' COMETS
        Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe, head of the team at Cardiff University's Centre for Astrobiology, which delivered the warning, said: "It's possible we need to think again about mitigating strategies.
      • DEFENSE AGAINST ASTEROIDS BEGINS STUDY
      • EXPERTS CALL FOR EXPANDED ASTEROID SEARCH
        The more refined hunt should start in 2008, the panelists conclude. It could be done with present technology and could find and catalog 90 percent of potentially threatening objects down to 153 yards (140 meters) by 2028.
        Too little, too late!
      • IS EARTH IN IMMINENT DANGER FROM INBOUND METEORS?
        Al Franken saying that Bush was more concerned with "meteors" than with terrorists.
        Valid report? INBOUND METEOR STORY PLAGIARIZED
      • IS EARTH IN IMMINENT DANGER FROM INBOUND METEORS? "First off, please keep my name off this article as I have found that the information I am revealing is so confidential, individuals who have leaked it have had their lives threatened. At any rate, here is the information I feel I have to reveal."
        "Al Franken saying that Bush was more concerned with "meteors" than with terrorists."
      • AUTHOR OF "INBOUND METEORS" RESPONDS "I found all the information that I have spent months digging up curious, and alarming, and certainly worth keeping an eye on. However, in all of my threads, the two referenced here, and the others he/she has taken information from, I have been careful to state that nothing is proven, only that there are a lot of "signs" that something MIGHT be up."
        "I would appreciate it if you will post the following where ever you have that article or link posted."
        ---------
        I think he is referring to the "PAY ATTENTION" post here at Rumor Mill News, which has a link to bushcountry about meteors at the bottom.
        AND Because Don said posts (plural) I searched "meteors" for the last 14 days here. So we also have this one:
        IS EARTH IN IMMINENT DANGER FROM INBOUND METEORS?
        http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=48208
      • QUEEN'S TALK TO DISCUSS ASTEROID IMPACT THREAT
        Dr Fitzsimmons and his colleagues from the UK Astrometry and Photometry Programme (UKAPP) for Near-Earth Objects, based at the University, are currently tracking NEOs and feeding their information into the international programme of protecting the Earth from any future impact by a comet or asteroid.
      • EARTH AT RISK: NEW CALLS FOR PLANETARY DEFENSE
        It is past time to get serious about planetary defense, experts say. The threat of Earth being on the receiving end of a cosmic calling card in the form of an asteroid or comet is real.
        A clear and present danger for those studying planetary defense is the lack of any chain-of-command to take on the duties of dealing with the prospect of disruptive collisions from asteroids and comets.
      • REVISED ASTEROID SCALE AIDS UNDERSTANDING OF IMPACT RISK
      • COMET DETECTION IS SERIOUS SCIENCE
        I have been with the Spaceguard Program in mitigation process and research since 1994 and the Stellar Research Group's efforts in asteroid and comet detection, verification and tracking. This program is not just about a bunch of scientists needing new toys for our labs, but about survival of the species and life as we know it.
      • ASTEROID SCARE PROMPTS NASA TO FORMALIZE RESPONSE
      • NEOS, PLANETARY DEFENSE AND GOVERNMENT - A VIEW FROM THE PENTAGON
      • PLANETARY DEFENSE
        Scientists and the military have only recently awakened to the notion that impacts with Earth do happen. "Planetary Defense" meets with both the scientific and military communities to study our options to mitigate an impact from asteroids and comets, collectively known as NEO's (Near Earth Objects). “Civilization is ill prepared for the inevitable. It's not if an impact will happen with the Earth, it's when!”
      • UK GOVERNMENT RESPONSE TO THE NEO TASK FORCE RECOMMENDATIONS UPDATE JANUARY 2005
        The Government takes the threat from Near Earth Objects (asteroids, comets) very seriously. Lord Sainsbury set up a Task Force (TF) to consider what part the UK could play in the international effort.
      • SCIENTISTS WANT TO BE READY TO BLOCK ASTEROID FROM HITTING EARTH
        Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-California, introduced a bill this month to bolster NASA spending on the search for near-Earth asteroids 100 yards or more across.
      • EARTH ALMOST PUT ON IMPACT ALERT - 24 February, 2004
        Practice makes perfect!
      • SCIENTISTS WARN OF RISK FROM DOOMSDAY ASTEROIDS
        The bad news? A big one could smack into Earth in the coming century, they said.
      • WHAT HAPPENS SHOULD A LARGER ASTEROID COME CALLING?
      • SCIENTISTS GATHER THIS FALL TO STUDY PREVENTING AN ASTEROID STRIKE ON EARTH
      • ASTEROID DEFENSE
      • IGNORING SPACE THREAT
        Scientists claim British officials 'not serious' about asteroids
      • NATURAL CATASTROPHES DURING BRONZE AGE CIVILISATIONS
        The final paper in the section on archaeology, geology and climatology is by Euan MacKie, who begins by warning that astronomers will have to produce clear evidence of comet swarms or the likelihood of large impacts at specific dates before most archaeologists will be willing to re-examine their data with this in mind. Keep looking up!
      • (9) I AM WORRIED ABOUT GOVERNMENT CONSPIRACIES & COMET IMPACTS
        Finally, if we're concerned about a public suspicious of government conspiracies and cover-ups, then perhaps we should address the big question: "What should the policy be if a comet suddenly brightens and is bound to collide with Earth in six months?"
      • CURRENT GIGANTIC US DEBT BUBBLE CHART
        Notice that the public debt began to soar shortly after the results of the IRAS satellite (launched in 1982) were analyzed.
      • CONCERNED CITIZENS ASK FOR CONGRESSIONAL ACTION ON NEAR EARTH OBJECTS
      • AN OPEN LETTER TO CONGRESS ON NEAR EARTH OBJECTS - July 7, 2003
        Dear Members of Congress:
        We write to you today as concerned citizens, convinced that the time has come for our nation to address comprehensively the impact threat from asteroids and comets.
        A growing body of scientific evidence shows that some of these celestial bodies, also known as Near Earth Objects (NEOs), pose a potentially devastating threat of collision with Earth, capable of causing widespread destruction and loss of life. The largest such impacts can not only threaten the survival of our nation, but even that of civilization itself.
      • (6) SCIENTISTS: THINK ABOUT DEFENDING EARTH FROM ASTEROIDS or
        Scientists: Think about defending Earth from asteroids
        Congress has mandated that NASA find 90 percent of one-kilometer Near-Earth Objects by 2008. So far, 672 have been detected, and none is a sure threat for roughly the rest of the century.
      • APPEAL FOR ACTION ON COMET THREAT
        One such object would cause a global catastrophe, killing about one quarter of the Earth's population. Impacts would cause "such a catastrophe that we must not let it happen.
      • RISK ANALYSIS
      • UPCOMMING CLOSE APPROACHES TO EARTH
      • ASTEROID IMPACT MOTTO: BE PREPARED
      • U.S. MILITARY CONSIDERS COORDINATED CLEARINGHOUSE TO MONITOR AND RESPOND TO ASTEROID, COMET THREAT
        It's a "virtual certainty" that Earth is going to be on the receiving end of an asteroid or comet.
      • LITTLE OR NO WARNING
      • WILL THE GOVERNMENT SAVE US? King Gilgamesh didn't
      • SPACEGUARD INDIA
      • AUSSIE ASTRONOMERS JOIN ASTEROID HUNT
      • NEAR-EARTH OBJECT THREAT - OCTOBER 3, 2002
      • CHAPTER 3: PLANETARY DEFENSE SYSTEM (part A)
        Long Period Comets: Warning 0-30 Days, Impact velocity 10-40 km/s
      • POTENTIALLY HAZARDOUS NEAR EARTH OBJECTS COMING TO YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD SOON
      • CIVIL DEFENSE PERSPECTIVES - IMPACT EVENTS
        For long-period comets, the warning time might be only a few months (and that is the threat we face!).
      • REDUCING AMERICA'S VULNERABILITY TO NATURAL HAZARDS
      • WATCH IS ON FOR DOOMSDAY ASTEROIDS, COMETS
      • COMETS: HOW BIG A THREAT TO EARTH? 28 January 2003
        "The worst scenario I can think of is a multi-kilometer-diameter, long-period comet discovered several months out on an impact trajectory as it is entering the inner solar system," How about a swarm of comets?
      • (7) THE BERLIN DECLARATION ON THE COSMIC IMPACT HAZARD
        The fact that asteroids and comets have hit the Earth in the past with calamitous consequences for life on this planet, and will do so again in the future with calamitous implications for the continued existence of our civilisation, has become common knowledge
        The Berlin Declaration
        1) The human risk posed by near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) is real and current search efforts are incommensurate with the level of the hazard.
        2) There is no broad-based international search and tracking effort to deal with the risk posed by NEAs.
        3) Given current search efforts, any NEA due to impact within the next few decades and capable of causing significant regional damage is unlikely to be recognized with sufficient warning time to allow it to be averted.
      • (1) IMPACT IMPERATIVE: LASER ABLATION MAY SOON BECOME AN EFFECTIVE TOOL OF PLANETARY PROTECTION or
        BEAMED PROPULSION: OUT OF THE LAB INTO SPACE
        Preventing collisions with the Earth by hypervelocity asteroids, meteoroids, and comets is the most important immediate space challenge facing human civilization. This is the Impact Imperative. Note: such a device could be effective at penetrating the debris surrounding threatening comets in the comet swarm as well at heating the comet's surface causing a "jet" that could shift its trajectory. Such a device would be more effective than a nuclear tipped missile.
      • CATASTROPHE-CLASS KILLER COMETS ARE COMING
      • OBSERVATORY OPENS EYES AT NATURE CENTER or (5) U.S. AIR FORCE FUND SOUTHERN COLORADO NEO SEARCH PROGRAMME
      • "PREPARING THE PUBLIC FOR AN IMPENDING IMPACT"
      • GENERAL CALLS FOR METEOR WARNING SYSTEM or IBID
      • FIRST STRIKE OR ASTEROID IMPACT? The Urgent Need to Know the Difference
        Military strategists and space scientists that wonder and worry about a run-in between Earth and a comet or asteroid have additional worries in these trying times.
      • ECLIPSED 26 Feburary 1999
        Arizona Asteroid Hunters Were Poised To Save The Earth From Armageddon. Then A Secret Air Force Project Took Over.Big Surprise!
        With no fanfare, a secretive operation developed by the Air Force began dominating the field of asteroid and comet detection. Now, with equipment developed at costs they won't discuss, a small group of Air Force technicians using a single, modest-size telescope in New Mexico has almost completely taken over the responsibility of mapping the Earth's neighborhood in space. It will be Air Force technicians, not Arizona astronomers, who will most likely tell Earthlings when they can expect Armageddon. Maybe not if this web site is correct.
      • (5) LET'S WHUP THAT GIANT SPACE ROCK OF DEATH Baltimore Sun - 10 February 2002
        Here's the scary part: The Times did not print one word about the asteroid. Instead, as this thing whizzed past, The Times printed the following exciting astronomy news:
        • JAN. 8 - Astronomers have discovered that certain gamma rays, which they used to think came from billions of light-years away, in fact came from only a few hundred million light-years away!
        • JAN. 9 - Having studied the far edges of the universe with the Hubbell telescope, astronomers now believe that roughly 14 billion years ago, stars formed more quickly than was previously thought!
        • JAN. 10 - Astronomers "peering deep into the heart of the Milky Way" have discovered more than 1,000 sources of "powerful X-rays," far more than were previously known!
      • (2) COLLISION COURSE - 22 May 2000
        Lurking beyond the outer planets are huge slabs of ice that could spell our destruction. They are the stealth bombers of the Solar System. Almost invisible in their pitch-black coats, they can come at us from any direction, giving almost no warning. Mostly they pass us by, but one day, one of these marauders will be right on target. And when it does it will devastate the Earth.
      • THE CONGRESSIONAL LUNCHEON BRIEFING ON THE IMPACT HAZARD AND NASA'S PLANS - June 1998
        Throughout his lecture Dr. Pilcher had given estimates for NEOs and the NEO threat by type, with 70% coming from asteroids, 20% from Short Period Comets, and 10% from Long Period Comets.
        Yeomans claimed that the vast majority of objects which could intercept the Earth were asteroids, which we would almost certainly detect a few decades before predicted impact. The same was true for short period comets, which have orbital periods of 5 to 6 years. The only wild card was long period comets, which would not be detected until they began gassing inside the orbit of Jupiter. These comprised 10% of the threat, and were the only objects for which we would not have several years warning. (Once again: NASA limits itself to 1 kilometer diameter objects and excludes anything 100 meters or so across.) Smoke and mirrors.
      • TASKFORCE TACKLES ASTEROID THREAT
        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.
      • (1) BRITAIN PLANS ARMAGEDDON CENTRE (sic!) AS COMET SHIELD - 28 November 1999
        A mature soul country is usually smarter, but less productive.
      • (1) CITY'S BID TO SAVE PLANET - JMU Could Build £15m Telescope To Spot Comets - 19 September 2000
        LIVERPOOL is aiming to spearhead the international drive to create an early warning system for asteroids threatening the Earth. A task force of experts is calling on the Government to build a new super telescope to watch the skies for asteroids and comets.
      • CHINA BUILDS NEW OBSERVATORY TO DETECT NEAR-EARTH ASTEROIDS - August 15, 2000
        The observatory will house a telescope with a mirror diameter of 1.2 metres to observe near-Earth asteroids and comets.There's not much food to go around after a comet strike.
      • ASTEROID AND COMET IMPACT HAZARD - David Morrison
        Click "NEA POPULATION AND IMPACT FREQUENCY" - November 9, 2001 NO LONGER LISTED
        Can a study of asteroids in the main belt provide new information on how often the Earth is struck by a Near Earth Object (NEO)? Some believe so, but most are doubtful.
        Click "Read more" to finally find mention of "the comet threat".
        When asked about polar bears, the Dr Snobbs said that, according to their working definition, white animals cannot be dangerous. "To imagine otherwise would be as silly as thinking that a comet could strike the Earth," he said. "Clearly this makes no sense. We deal with white animals all the time ? cats and mice, mostly - and although a cat may scratch you occasionally, they are not life-threatening." When pressed further, he commented that in any case polar bears live only in parts of Canada, not the United States, and Canadians don't count. Since a comet strike could bring an Ice Age to Canada, this analogy does appear ironic.

        Click "IS THE EARTH TARGETED FOR AN IMPACT?"
        Not that we know of! None of the asteroids or comets discovered so far is on a collision course with Earth. However, we can't speak for those that are not yet discovered. In principle, one of those could hit any time, but statistically the chances are very small. Don't worry, be happy?
        But this "Vulcan, Comets and the Impending Catastrophe" web site offers warnings of two threatening comet swarms. It employs geochronological and archeological data to date possible past comet impact events. Additionally, it documents prophecies warnings from such notables as:
        • Christ as recorded in Matthew, Luke and John (Revelation)
        • Biblical prophets such as Zachriah, Daniel and Moses (Hebrew Pentateuch)
        • 15 th prophets such as Nostradamus and Mother Shipton
        • Assorted theological prophets
        • The late Fred Hoyle (royal astronomer of the UK) and Isaac Newton
        • Assorted astronomers and geologists
        • Even (if you can accept it) from various past and current space alien contacts
        Unlike humans, it is envisioned that the latter could have the technology to detect threatening long-period comet/meteor swarms and predict when they could again threaten Earth.
        The scenario envisioned is that comet swarm B will decimates mankind in the early 21 st century, killing (by starvation) a significant fraction of humanity and destroying much of our technology. Unless we can recover and destroy the next threatening swarm (swarm A), mankind will be annihilated circa 3797. However, evolutionary cycle of mankind's collective conscience-ness will not end then. It (we) will reincarnate as a new and different sentient species. Our culture and technical ability would be lost, as well as our biological life form. We would likely reincarnate in another (e. g. a squid like) life form, bound to (the seas of) a new and different planet and "begin again".
      • IMPACT HAZARD - EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
      • ASTEROID IMPACT CENTRE SITE SELECTED - 1 January 2002
        It will analyse the potential threat posed by NEOs and inform the public about asteroids and comets.
      • THE COMET/ASTEROID IMPACT HAZARD: A SYSTEMS APPROACH
        Clark R. Chapman and Daniel D. Durda - 24 February 2001

        The threat of impact on Earth of an asteroid or comet, while of very low probability, has the potential to create public panic and, should an impact happen, be sufficiently destructive (perhaps on a global scale) that an integrated approach to the science, technology, and public policy aspects of the impact hazard is warranted.

        Comparatively little attention has been devoted to finding or dealing with other potential impactors, including asteroids smaller than 1 km or long-period comets. And essentially no analysis has been done of how to mitigate other repercussions from predictions of impacts (civil panic), how to plan for other kinds of mitigation besides deflection (e.g. evacuation of ground zero, storing up food in the case of a worldwide breakdown of agriculture, etc.)

        We believe it is appropriate, in the United States, that the National Research Council develop a technical assessment of the impact hazard that could serve as a basis for developing a broader consensus among the public, policy officials, and governmental agencies about how to proceed. The dinosaurs could not evaluate and mitigate the natural forces that exterminated them, but human beings have the intelligence to do so.
      • ASTEROID AND COMET IMPACT HAZARDS
      • PLANETARY DEFENSE: ELIMINATING THE GIGGLE FACTOR Lt Col Martin E. B. France, USAF - 7 August 2000
      • DISASTEROIDS!
        For the past 25 years, U.S. spy satellites have recorded high-altitude explosive flashes of incoming meteoroids. Produced by car - to garage - size objects as they enter the upper atmosphere, they are seen as often as 40 times a year. To scientists, their frequency is a warning of the number of NEOs up there.
      • PLANETARY DEFENSE: CATASTROPHIC HEALTH INSURANCE FOR PLANET EARTH
      • (5) NEAR-EARTH ASTEROID SAMPLE RETURN WORKSHOP STEERING COMMITTEE
        • Derek Sears, Chair, University of Arkansas
        • Dan Britt, University of Tennessee
        • Don Brownlee, University of Washington
        • Andrew Cheng, Johns Hopkins University
        • Benton Clark, Lockheed Martin Astronautics
        • Leon Geffert, NASA Glenn Research Center
        • Steve Goreven, Honeybee Robotics
        • Marilyn Lindstrom, NASA Johnson Space Center
        • Carle Pieters, Brown University
        • Jeff Preble, SpaceWorks, Inc.
      • NASA MAY BE INCHING ITS WAY TO DISCLOSURE...02/10/00 As you can see, there are several reasons to believe something extremely exceptional is upon us. Could it be that NASA has known this for sometime, but did not quite know how to tell us?
      • FIRST CONGRESSIONAL TESTIMONY
        STATEMENT OF David Morrison; Chief, Space Science Division; NASA Ames Research Center
        Before the Subcommittee on Space; Committee on Science, Space and Technology; U.S. House of Representatives - March, 24, 1993
      • SECOND CONGRESSIONAL TESTIMONY
        John D. G. Rather, Ph.D.: Assistant Director for Space Technology (Program Development): National Aeronautics and Space Administration
        Before the Subcommittee on Space; Committee on Science, Space and Technology; U.S. House of Representatives - March 24, 1993
      • Daring encounter with asteroid
        A Japanese spacecraft is about to make a close encounter with an asteroid in a mission to recover space dust.
      • Asteroid encounter postponed
        The planned touchdown of a Japanese space probe on a distant asteroid has been cancelled at the last minute.
      • PROBE YIELDS EARTH DEFENCE CLUES
      • JAPANESE ASTEROID TEAM REPORTS ON BALL OF RUBBLE
      • NEW COMET FINDINGS FROM DEEP IMPACT
        The Deep Impact collision with Comet Tempel 1 on July 4th revealed that the main component is too soft to be ice. Scientists once thought ice would be the main component. The comet may have been composed of a fine powder more like talcum powder, not a beach sand. A hot vapor of water and carbon dioxide was also detected by Deep Impacts flyby instruments.
        Some hydrocarbons were detected.
      • DEEP IMPACT COMET BASH LIVE
      • DEEP IMPACT COMET BASH part 2
      • IMPACTOR EJECTS MIGHTY WATER MASS
        The Nasa projectile that slammed into Comet Tempel 1 last year kicked out at least 250,000 tonnes of water.
      • THUNDERBOLTS PREDICTIONS ON 'DEEP IMPACT'
      • 'STARDUST' SHATTERS COMET THEORY - Part 1
      • DEEP IMPACT
        When Nick Kaiser won a whopping contract to build an asteroid-spotting telescope, he also created a high-tech bonanza for Hawaii
      • NASA TO LOOK INTO NEO THREAT RESPONSE PROPOSALS
        "The U.S. Congress has declared that the general welfare and security of the United States require that the unique competence of NASA be directed to detecting, tracking, cataloguing, and characterizing near-Earth asteroids and comets in order to provide warning and mitigation of the potential hazard of such near-Earth objects to the Earth," the Act states.
      • POWERFUL TELESCOPE SET FOR CHILE
        A large telescope that will scan the entire visible sky every three nights is to be built on a mountain in Chile. The LSST should be under construction by 2009 with a planned completion date in 2012.
      • (4) COMETARY DETECTION
        NASA ( Ron Baalke ) released the following piece of news a few days ago:
        "Interestingly, when Comet Halley reaches its largest distance from the Sun in December 2023, about 35 AU, it will only be 2.5 times fainter than it is now. The comet would still have been detected within the present exposure time. This means that with the VLT, for the first time in the long history of this comet, the astronomers now possess the means to observe it at any point in its 76-year orbit!"
        This is great news to the NEO community, since it points to the feasibility of predicting impacts from 10km comets several decades prior to the event, when they are well beyond the orbit of Neptune. - On condition that we scour the skies for them of course, but should funding be a question at all when the survival of our civilization, if not our species, on planet Earth is at stake?
      • UNSEEN COMETS MAY RAISE IMPACT RISK FOR EARTH
      • (9) SPOTTING COMETS AT GREAT DISTANCE
        Feasibility, yes, practicality... well, maybe not. The Halley image was the sum of 81 individual images totalling 9 hours over three nights, taken with three (!) 8.2 meter telescopes. It must have taken weeks to reduce that data. And they saw Halley. Barely.
      • (7) DON'T IGNORE SMALLEST ASTEROIDS, COMETS
        The weak part of the NASA report is, as Ed Grondine described it, the apathy with which it faces the threat from comets. How great a percentage of the residual risk from >1km objects stems from comets? How can the objects in that size range be deemed 100% detected, if comets are excluded? The report expects that the new search programme will lead to a guaranteed six-months warning time for comets, but is that so? I fear not, since the asteroid search is likely to concentrate on the skies near the ecliptical plane. But stray rocks traversing interstellar space may arrive from any direction.
      • REPORT: NASA CAN'T KEEP UP WITH KILLER ASTEROIDS - August 12, 2009
        That's because even though Congress assigned the space agency this mission four years ago, it never gave NASA money to build the necessary telescopes, the new National Academy of Sciences report says. Specifically, NASA has been ordered to spot 90 percent of the potentially deadly rocks hurtling through space by 2020.
    • DESTRUCTION OF THREATENING IMPACTORS
      • FIRE IN THE SKY : RUSSIA PLANS TO INTERCEPT METEORS WITH NUCLEAR WEAPONS - Mar 14, 2013
      • WHITE HOUSE BUILDS UNDERGROUND SUPER BUNKER–TOOK 4 YEARS TO COMPLETE–WHAT ARE THEY PREPARING FOR? - February 21, 2013
      • WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT BIG ROCKS FROM SPACE? - February 19, 2013
      • SO DID A UFO SHOOT DOWN THE FAMOUS CHELYABINSK METEORITE LAST MONTH? - 28 February 2013
        The meteorite that crashed to Earth in the Urals was attacked by a UFO causing it to explode and shatter, it was claimed on Thursday.
        Now attention has switched to whether - as a raging online debate suggests - 'we were saved by a UFO' exploding the menacing meteorite seconds before it struck the ground.
        'At first, we also believed that the Chelyabinsk meteorite was just an ordinary meteorite, a cosmic body', said Alexander Komanev, coordinator for the Russian UFO community in Yekaterinburg. 'But facts began to emerge. In the internet began to appear videos, at least three of which were similar, on which you can see how an object catches the meteorite.'
        This tiny object then 'flies through it - and the meteorite explodes and falls.
      • INSANE ANTI-BALLISTIC MISSILE FROM RUSSIA
        Did Russia's Awesome 'Gazelle' ABM Hit The Meteor?
      • UFO ENGAGES RUSSIAN METEOR? 2013 1080p - Feb 19, 2013
        When I first saw viewed this footage I assumed it was a lens flare, but I decided to have a closer look and in my opinion there is an object, and it does seem to engage the Meteor. Object has a clear flight pattern in three frames, then seems to execute an impossible turn directly toward the Meteor
        SELECTED COMMENTS
        it looks there was some intelligent object over the meteorite...there are? other videos around this channel showing the same evidence.
        from the? start. try focusing around the top of the right tree. there are several speeding and fast directions shifting objects. and one sad slow and confused one ;) all just better proof...
        You have a serious problem Anthony. The video analysis showed in three dimension that there is another object in the space. If you are not capable to understand that, study the techniques available over the internet on how to analyze fake videos. This is as real as it can? be. Undeniable proof.
        72,000 miles per hour - non aerodynamic - it tumbles, builds up enormous heat and rotational energy, vaporizing the rock/iron inside and out. Pressure builds up. It cracks, high-speed air gets into cracks.. breaks apart, exposing even more? surface area, more heat... repeat thousands of times as it breaks up. (boom)
        location is a town in Russia known for producing nuclear weapons and testing them. it's not odd in? any sense that the object your suggesting is a UFO, is in fact a Russian missile. question really here is: is the missile a ground to air missile? or something developed by the Russian's equal to the U.S. starwars defense program? if a G2A missile, it seems to have some sort of tech that cloaks it from normal vision up until near impact. not sure if radar would pick it up either if thats the case.
      • ANOTHER LOOK...RUSSIAN ABM (?) HITTING INCOMING METEOR - Vid - Feb 16, 2013
        Look just below the tail and see the UFO that catches up and runs into a meteor breaks it and goes off to the side.
      • METEORIT UFO CHELYABINSK. SAVED US? (views 1,623,332) - Feb 16, 2013
        SELECTED COMMENTS
        According to various estimates, the rate of the meteorite was between 20 and 70 km / c.Even modern prototype did not fly until the faster 4 km / c. C-400 can intercept targets flying no faster than 4.8 km / c. The speed difference is huge, perhaps an order of magnitude.
        If you see the original video with a slightly smaller increase and without delay, it is evident that it is the glare on the glass of the car, and not a UFO and debris.
        my friends that is clearly a ufo that flew in and blew the asteroid up before it hit this is only one of many times uof's have intercepted something in the sky there are videos of missles being destroyed as well are aliens protecting us or the earth?
        I can bring a lot of evidence that this is just a reflection!
        What a piece of? : D If it was a piece of flying and would like the video faster than the speed of the meteor it would have burned down and not be struck through and through! Meteorite shard can not travel faster than him, much less a fragment can not fly in the other direction!
        is seen in all the videos
        his is not a UFO. This is just another piece that broke off from the main and flying him to the tail. When entering the Earth's atmosphere, a meteorite crashed into several large pieces that do not have time to burn and fall. They were flying and other smaller pieces. UFO theme - this misinformation!
      • CHELYABINSK METEORITE. QUESTIONS, QUESTIONS ... - 2013-02-18
        SELECTED COMMENTS
        Fake this video or not fake but the fact that so quickly cordoned off the area and threw the debris in search of about 20,000 soldiers (these figures seem sounded officially) leads to some thoughts on the nature of the "meteorite" and all that happened there.
        And it is a rocket, went on any forum discussion Learn all there is ridiculed Latynina, I am 100% proven that the missile, snapped at me, cursed, but no answer was given immediately banned, but the fact that I served in the Strategic Missile Forces 2 years, conscripts, at Plesetsk test site, by the way could be launched from there, are you that there is such Niznayu Plesetsk test site in the Arkhangelsk region, where the whole area was cordoned off and all evicted, in the taiga are missile silos and different points, so that's personally observed 10 - 12 launches of strategic missiles, which fly from the Plesetsk test site in Kamchatka. when I was 2 accident, explosion rocket once at the start, and once in a few minutes after launch, the same pattern, smoke trail, then a bright flash, then an explosion. And if you look on the internet for the fall of meteorites on will see that there is not such a massive explosion and there is no blinding flash. Just flies meteorite and burns. With the explosion of the rocket is a moment as bright as day, and exactly the same picture I saw on the video from Chelyabinsk http://www.youtube.com/watch?
        conclusion is obvious in my opinion. UFO shot down or just an accident, but it appears to us as a sad sbit.Vyvod Papuans can only watch and suffer neponyatkah. And it is obvious that collapsed friendly object, turned back to the lake, but do not fit into the city. All conclusions are made ??solely on publicly available information sources.
      • OBSERVATORY IN SPAIN CAPTURED SOMETHING BEING SHOT AT 2012 DA14! - Feb 20, 2013
        This is a video recorded from the La Sagra Sky Survey which is operated by the Astronomical Observatory Of Mallocra In Spain. The images were recorded on 02/15/2013 at approximately 12:59 PM P.S.T. The observatory states that they have no idea what the second object is shooting at DA14.
      • METEORITE HITS RUSSIAN URALS: FIREBALL EXPLOSION WREAKS HAVOC, OVER 500 INJURED - 15 February, 2013
        Russia’s Urals region has been rocked by a meteorite explosion in the stratosphere. The impact wave damaged several buildings, and blew out thousands of windows amid frigid winter weather. Hundreds are seeking medical attention for minor injuries.
        According to unconfirmed reports, the meteorite was intercepted by an air defense unit at the Urzhumka settlement near Chelyabinsk. A missile salvo blew the meteorite to pieces at an altitude of 20 kilometers, local newspaper Znak reports quoting a source in the military.
        Regnum news agency quoted a military source who claimed that the vapor condensation trail of the meteorite speaks to the fact that the meteorite was intercepted by air defenses.
        Witnesses said the explosion was so loud that it seemed like an earthquake and thunder had struck at the same time, and that there were huge trails of smoke across the sky. Others reported seeing burning objects fall to earth.
        A spokesperson for the Urals regional Emergency Ministry center claimed it sent out a mass SMS warning residents about a possible meteorite shower. However, eyewitnesses said they either never received it, or got the message after the explosion had occurred. The Emergency Ministry has since denied sending out the SMS warning, and said the spokesperson that spread the false information "will be fired."
        Army units found three meteorite debris impact sites, two of which are in an area near Chebarkul Lake, west of Chelyabinsk. The third site was found some 80 kilometers further to the northwest, near the town of Zlatoust. One of the fragments that struck near Chebarkul left a crater six meters in diameter.
        Servicemembers from the tank brigade that found the crater have confirmed that background radiation levels at the site are normal.
        Samples of water taken from the lake have not revealed any excessive radioactivity or foreign material
      • THE MOST BREATHTAKING PICTURES YET OF RUSSIAN METEORITE: PHOTOGRAPHER CAPTURED EXPLODING SPACE ROCK ON CAMERA... DESPITE THINKING IT WAS NUCLEAR BOMB THAT WOULD KILL HIM - 21 February 2013
      • DID A RUSSIAN NUCLEAR ANTI-BALLISTIC MISSILE SPLIT THE CHELYABINSK METEOR?? - 2-20-13
        "Christopher Chyba and others have proposed a process whereby a stony meteorite could have exhibited the behavior of the Tunguska impactor. Their models show that when the forces opposing a body's descent become greater than the cohesive force holding it together, it blows apart, releasing nearly all its energy at once. The result is no crater, and damage distributed over a fairly wide radius, all of the damage being blast and thermal.
      • MISSILE DEFENSE, ASTEROIDS AND DEADLOCK - October 31, 2011
        Russian Ambassador to NATO Dmitry Rogozin has proposed creating a joint U.S.- Russia missile defense system, which in addition to its defense capabilities, would also protect the Earth against asteroids. The recent unexpected proposal could help the two countries break a vicious cycle.
        Russia responded by proposing a common anti-asteroid shield. Now it’s NATO’s turn to react.
      • ASTEROID DEFLECTION MISSIONS UNDERWAY - January 15, 2013
      • ASTEROID COLLISION COURSE: HOW WOULD NASA HANDLE A GIANT ASTEROID? - Jan. 2013
      • SLAM A SPACESHIP INTO ASTEROID, SAVE THE EARTH — IT'S THAT EASY - 12/7/2012
      • ISU PROF'S AIM: AVERT ASTEROID HIT - Jan. 17, 2012
        His groundbreaking idea for striking with nukes earns grants from nasa
      • SCIENTIFIC DOOMSDAY: WAYS THE WORLD COULD ACTUALLY END - January 17, 2012
        Asteroid Accident
      • COSMIC COLLISION? RUSSIA'LL TAKE CARE OF IT - video
      • HOW DECEMBER 21, 2012 COULD CHANGE THE EARTH
        The most likely natural cataclysm, of course, is an asteroid or comet impact. We know these have happened several times in Earth's relatively recent past, with devastating consequences.
      • US RETURNS TO MOON IN 2012
        NASA official Jeff Hanley said they had been planning to go to Mars again and will hopefully send a team in 2014; the flight test program will begin in 2012.
      • AIR FORCE SEEKS BUSH'S APPROVAL FOR SPACE WEAPONS PROGRAMS - An Anti-Comet Weapon? I hope not!
        With little public debate, the Pentagon has already spent billions of dollars developing space weapons and preparing plans to deploy them.
        The Air Force, saying it must secure space to protect the nation from attack, is seeking President Bush's approval of a national-security directive that could move the United States closer to fielding offensive and defensive space weapons, according to White House and Air Force officials.
      • ASTEROID SURVIVAL: HOW TO SURVIVE A COLLISION WITH AN EARTH-SHATTERING ASTEROID
      • DEFLECTING A NEAR EARTH OBJECT WITH TODAY'S SPACE TECHNOLOGY
      • A RAPID AND SCALABLE APPROACH TO PLANETARY DEFENSE AGAINST ASTEROID IMPACTORS Maybe not that good for long period comets.
      • FOUR PLANNING SCENARIOS FOR PLANETARY PROTECTION and FULL PAPER
      • CRASH MISSION TO DEFLECT EARTH-BOUND ASTEROID - July 16, 2004
        The European Space Agency's near-Earth object advisory panel has recommended high priority for a Spanish mission to smash into a distant asteroid.
        The mission, named Don Quijote, will use two spacecraft. One, called Sancho, will head for a target asteroid 500 metres (1,540ft) in diameter and go into orbit around it for at least seven months. It will drop detectors to measure the asteroid's internal structure.
        The second spacecraft, Hidalgo, will be launched at the same time but approach on a longer orbit - and smash into the asteroid at more than 22,000mph, while the first spacecraft watches the fireworks. The collision would hardly stop the asteroid in its tracks but it might slow it on what could be a collision course with Earth.
        The Spanish scientists will now look for partners for the mission. With international cooperation, Don Quijote could be launched between 2010 and 2015. Hidalgo will be the first true attempt at deflecting an asteroid.
        In December Nasa will launch Deep Impact, which will fire a copper projectile into a comet, deliberately gouging out a crater.
        And a European space mission called Rosetta is on its way to an encounter with a distant comet in 2014. Keep looking up!
      • DEEP IMPACT SPACECRAFT READY FOR MISSION
      • NASA THROWS DEEP IMPACT SPACECRAFT AT COMET
      • SPACECRAFT COUNTS DOWN TO BLAST-OFF AND A CLOSE ENCOUNTER WITH A COMET
        Explosion will cause a fireworks display visible from Earth and give clues to origin of life
      • NASA SEARCHES FOR A SNOWBALL IN HELL
        God must be laughing at us silly humans, because NASA has about as much chance of finding ice in Tempel 1 as the proverbial snowball in hell. It just ain't going to happen. There's too much contrarian evidence. It's been accumulating for years, and should have melted the ice model, long ago. Yet, NASA stolidly presses onward. The agency greets every new anomaly with ad hoc improvisations, and has gone to increasingly outlandish lengths to preserve its ice theory. Why? Answer: because so much hangs in the balance. The stakes are very high. More is involved than simply comets. At issue is the Red Shift, the expanding universe, the theory of black holes, and yes, even the big bang---all at risk if NASA's cometary house of cards comes crashing down.
      • FORMER ASTRONAUT, ENGINEERS HOPE TO DEFLECT ASTEROID
      • CRASH PLANNING: MISSION TO DEFLECT AN ASTEROID - 13 July 2004
        A mission to smash into a space rock to deflect it and study its structure has been given priority over five other potential asteroid projects by the European Space Agency.
      • BLINDED BY THE LIGHT
        Lasers may one day be our first line of defense for finding and fighting asteroids.
      • ON ENERGY-ASTRONOMICAL-LASER SPACE BASE FOR THE ASTEROID-COMET HAZARD MITIGATION
        A lunar base to mitigate the asteroid-comet hazard for the Earth is investigated.
      • PLANETARY DEFENSE LINKS
      • (7) SENATE NATURAL HAZARDS CAUCUS (NHS) MEETING ANS ASTEROID TUGBOAT
      • ASTEROID PROTECTION PLAN PROPOSED
        An unmanned spacecraft should test ways to deflect a threatening asteroid, two astronauts have told the US government.
      • EARTH DEFENSE GRAPHIC
      • KILLING ASTEROIDS
      • A SECOND LINE OF DEFENSE
      • IMPACT
        What can I do, if a large comet or asteroid is on a collision course with Earth?
      • SCIENTISTS AIM LASERS AT SUPER TASKS 11/03/02
        HUNTSVILLE A meeting here this week will focus on how beams of energy microwaves and lasers and such could be used to propel spaceships, deflect asteroids or even push microscopic crafts through our veins.
      • THE NEED FOR EXPERIMENTS ON COMETS AND ASTEROIDS By Dr. Edward Teller Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
      • PROTECTION OF THE EARTH AGAINST ASTEROIDS AND COMETS ON THE BASE OF MODERN TECHNOLOGY
      • COMET PROBE IS RARING TO GO
      • (3) PLANETARY DEFENSE FROM THE NEAREST 4 LAGRANGIAN POINTS - 14 February 2002
        Too little, too late!
      • (2) ASTRONOMER SAYS SPACE ROCKETS MAY BE EARTH'S BEST DEFENSE - 14 February 2002
        Too little, too late!
      • CONTINUE But the Project Icarus model is probably worth dusting off and trying again either as an exercise for aerospace engineering students or for a government science and engineering advisory board. Although it would not be a valid contingency plan, at least it would help to identify our options in the event that something like this happened. If humanity suddenly realized that an asteroid was heading our way and we had only two years to respond, could we do something? Or would we simply be condemned to sit back and stare at the clock, waiting for the brief flash in the upper atmosphere signifying impending doom? It may not have taken into account the debris field surrounding the comets.
      • (5) RUSSIAN RESEARCH ON NEOS & PLANETARY DEFENSE BOOMING - 15 November 2000
        Our Russian colleagues are doing an excellent job of starting to seriously look at what we could do, if the whistle blew tomorrow. Without preparations, it would take us about 2 years (minimum) to put-togeather and launch a system. The trip, to interception, could take another year. We might not have three years. It gets cold in Russia after a comet strike!
      • (3) COULD LASERS ZAP INCOMING ASTEROIDS? or
        Reuters
      • EARTH DEFENSE A study defining ways to protect earth from a potential comet or meteor strike.
      • NEW TELESCOPE TO REVOLUTIONIZE ASTEROID WARNING SYSTEM
        A group of telescopes using the world's biggest digital cameras will soon start scanning the sky from the Hawaiian Islands, tracking down thousands of the smaller, dimmer and overlooked objects in the Sun's neighborhood. The reason? Hunting for those dangerous space rocks that still elude detection.
      • SPACEGUARD UK OPENS OBSERVATORY Friday, 28 September, 2001, 21:58 GMT 22:58 UK "We want to raise public awareness of the threat of asteroid and comet impacts, and the ways in which we can predict and prevent them."
      • COMET CHASER SET FOR 12-YEAR MISSION
        Rosetta and its landing craft, Philae, will be launched from French Guiana next Thursday (26 Feb. 2004) for a 12-year mission.
      • SPACEPROBE SET FOR COMET ENCOUNTER
      • NASA TO CRASH PROBE INTO COMET
      • DEEP IMPACT NASA HOME PAGE Possible NASA project to penetrate comet with 1,100 pound (nuclear weapon sized) copper projectile on 4 July 2005. Like in the movie "Deep Impact", a direct route from launch in January 2004 to the comet is planned. What convenient timing. Actions speak louder than words!
      • DEEP IMPACT: SMASHING INTO A COMET MAY IMPROVE PLANETARY PROTECTION Imagine that!
      • (5) DEEP IMPACT MISSION IN DEEP TROUBLE?
      • DEEP IMPACT SPACE PROBE AIMS TO SLAM INTO COMET
        The impact with Tempel 1 is likely to produce a crater the size of a football stadium on a comet with a diameter of about 3.7 miles. But if the comet's nucleus is more like a solid ice cube, the impact might create a much smaller crater. If the comet is made of what A'Hearn called solid pumice rock -- hard but full of holes -- the impact would simply compress the existing material. Or the comet might even have the consistency of powdery snow, in which case the impactor would tunnel right through it. A remote possibility is that the impact would create a shockwave that would break it apart, though A'Hearn called this the least likely scenario.
      • COMET CHASER COSTS RISE
        Officials must now juggle their funds to pay for a new flight for the probe early in 2004. Rosetta is currently being stored in a "clean" facility at the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana. Scientists have confirmed they want to send the spacecraft to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko now that the original target, Comet Wirtanen, is no longer reachable in the desired timeframe.
      • IMPACT ON A COMET: ROSETTA LANDER SIMULATIONS

        During 2012 the Rosetta Lander spacecraft will be ejected from the Rosetta orbiter and touch the surface of comet 46P/Wirtanen. The objective of these simulations are the understandings of the dynamics of the spacecraft upon impact with the surface. The surface details are unfamiliar and must be described within a range of possible parameters. The collision must be damped upon impact and the spacecraft must be secured on the comet's surface. What convenient timing. Actions speak louder than words!
      • EUROPE GEARS UP FOR COMET CHASER
        It will now lift off in February 2004, after a delay of more than a year. Rosetta is scheduled for launch on 26 February 2004 on an Ariane-5 G+ rocket from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.
        The new destination has posed some engineering challenges for the European Space Agency (Esa), not least because the comet is three times larger than Wirtanen, its original quarry.
      • (3) ROSETTA: A COMET RIDE TO SOLVE PLANETARY MYSTERIES
        The mission's target is Comet Wirtanen and the encounter will occur in 2011. Rosetta's name comes from the famous Rosetta stone, that almost 200 years ago led to the deciphering of Egyptian hieroglyphics. In a similar way, scientists hope that the Rosetta spacecraft will unlock the mysteries of the Solar System.
    • UNUSUAL SURVIVAL STRATEGIES
      • THE SECRET SPACE PROGRAM FULL DOCUMENTARY - Feb 23, 2013
        The Secret Space Program Full Documentary - In this documentary the authors discuss the secret space program, what it is, who is behind it and why? Is there a human civilization living off-world with highly advanced technology and knowledge about the existence of aliens? Why are we being kept in the dark?
        Since approximately 1980, a secret space fleet code named 'Solar Warden' has been in operation unknown to the public... Is this nonsense, is it a conspiracy or is it simply so sensitive that it will cause uproar around the world?
      • WHERE ARE AMERICA'S EMERGENCY FOOD SUPPLIES?
        Reserves for national disaster shockingly low, rapidly disappearing
      • HOMELAND SECURITY CONTRACTS FOR VAST NEW DETENTION CAMPS
        A multimillion program for detention facilities will greatly increase NORTHCOM's ability to respond to any domestic disorders.
      • FEMA CONCENTRATION CAMPS: - Locations and Executive Orders - Think Comet Impact.
      • DOOMSDAY VAULT TO AVERT WORLD FAMINE
        WITHIN a large concrete room, hewn out of a mountain on a freezing-cold island just 1000 kilometres from the North Pole, could lie the future of humanity.
        The room is a "doomsday vault" designed to hold around 2 million seeds, representing all known varieties of the world's crops. It is being built to safeguard the world's food supply against nuclear war, climate change, terrorism, rising sea levels, earthquakes and the ensuing collapse of electricity supplies. "If the worst came to the worst, this would allow the world to reconstruct agriculture on this planet,"
      • 'DOOMSDAY' SEED BANK TO BE BUILT
      • CHINA PLANS 1,000 DISASTER SHELTERS
      • HARD CHOICES - SITE LOCATION & THE MORALITY OF SURVIVAL
        Survival preparations must incorporate a plan of action regarding those unfortunates who have never given survival or self-reliance a second thought.
      • VERY BIG BOMBS AND ROCKETS: ARMAGEDDON FOR REAL - 10 July 2000
        IBID? Over thirty years ago, a group of engineers-in-training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology designed a far more realistic defense against a doomsday rock. Their plan would have involved a half dozen Saturn V rockets carrying some really big bombs. Wasn't that about the time the third secret of Fatima was suppose to be released?
      • CHROMDYNAMIX An Unofficial ISS web site.
        Hypothesis: The International Space Station Secret.
        The ISS is a huge kinetic device designed to deflect asteroids and comets that intersect the orbit of earth. NEO (near earth orbit) asteroids and cosmic debris will one day threaten to destroy civilization as we know it. It has happened in the past it will happen in the future. Note: such a beam would not be as vulnerable to the potential impacts from meteors found in a comet related debris field and may have a greater chance of reaching and reacting with its target than a nuclear tipped missile.
      • CASSINI AT SATURN - Approach & Phoebe
        June 2004, a few weeks before entering the orbit of Saturn, the Cassini spacecraft will fly by Phoebe and begin its landmark scientific mission. Notice Phoebe in this Bible Code.
      • CASSINI SIGNIFICANT EVENT REPORT
        Discussions focused on the upcoming Phoebe flyby on June 11, 2004, and Saturn orbit insertion on June 30 (PDT) (July 1, GMT), as well as public affairs plans to support these key activities.
      • PHOEBE
        Phoebe is the last of the known satellites of Saturn, at a distance of 12.952 million kilometers (8 million miles). Phoebe orbits Saturn in a retrograde direction (opposite to the direction of the other satellites' orbits) in a plane much closer to the ecliptic than to Saturn's equatorial plane. Voyager 2 found that Phoebe has a roughly circular shape, and reflects about 6 percent of the sunlight. It also is quite red. Phoebe rotates on its axis about once every nine hours. Thus, unlike the other Saturnian satellites (except Hyperion), it does not always show the same face to the planet.