JANUARY SOLAR STORMS, ASTEROID SPARK MORE PANIC

Ambrosia Sabrina, writing in the International Business Times reported that recent solar activity coupled with Asteroid BX34, which had a “close encounter” with earth January 27, “sparked apocalyptic hysteria across nations and even called for global mitigation measures to be implemented in the wake of an impending doomsday threat.”

At this point, let me say that I did not hear anything about Asteroid BX34 and certainly I don’t recall any “apocalyptic hysteria.” Still, if the International Business Times says it’s so, who am I to argue?

Anyway, think tanks around the world are grappling with fears of comets and asteroids slamming into earth and, apparently, the Europeans are funding "NEOShield," a project led by the German Aerospace Center to gather top scientists from the U.S., Germany, Spain, the British Isles, France and Russia to consider the threat of asteroids and comets and propose solutions.

Alan Harris, a senior scientist and NEOShield project leader, issued a statement:

"The scientific side of this will include the analysis of observational data on Near Earth Objects (NEOs) and laboratory experiments in which projectiles are fired at asteroid surface analog materials with different compositions, densities, porosities and structures. We need to understand how the momentum transfer from a kinetic impactor to an asteroid depends on the physical characteristics of the asteroid."

The kinetic impactor is a “planetary defense device used to deflect NEOs from their impact paths and thereby avoid catastrophic events.”

Okay, it’s not a bad idea to ponder these things and it’s probably a good idea to come up with some likely scenarios for reflecting or destroying NEOs that pose to real threat. Fortunately, most objects hitting our atmosphere are incinerated before they impact and those that aren’t completely destroyed are too small to worry about.

NASA says objects the side of a football field hit earth every two thousands years or so and can cause major damage in and around the impact area. Larger objects, those that could be considered a real threat to civilization, only hit the earth once in every few million years.

The real worry out of all this and a sad commentary our 2012, I think, is the panic generated by ignorant people who seem to be anxious for the End Times to arrive.