An asteroid travelling at 45,000mph and weighing some 150 million tons
almost impacted the Earth on Sunday 19th May 1996. Had it hit, you wouldn't
be reading this. Regular readers of UFO Magazine will be familiar with our
repeatedly published concerns about these dangerous 'visitors' from space,
and the apparent ease with which they remain undetected until they are
practically knocking at Earth's door. Cosmologists have either got their
numbers wrong, or they simply haven't got their act together.
* Comet Hale Bopp, almost 1,000 times larger than Halley's Comet, was not
detected until it had reached Jupiter.
* Former Astronomer Royal Professor Sir Arnold Wolfendale FRS, when asked on
18th March this year how come the major observatories had missed it replied:
"Good question. I really don't know."
* Sir Arnold said that the chances of a comet hitting the Earth were remote:
"...about 10,000 to one."
* Almost five years ago, teams of scientists met in secret at a small
Sicilian town to discuss how to combat the increasing threat from asteroids
and comets. They were joined by SDI officials from the Pentagon, and their
Russian counterparts. Since that meeting was held, the silence has been
deafening.
Only 280,000 miles of space stood between the Earth and 1996 JA1 from total
catastrophe on 19th May, and millions will probably remain blissfully
unaware of the fact. They will not know or[ appreciate the significance that
the asteroid wasn't spotted until 14th May by two astronomers in Tucson,
Arizona, when it was less than five million miles away and heading towards
us. The fact that it missed by a distance no greater than that between the
Earth and the Moon, is of little comfort to those who feared the awful
consequences of what might have been had the asteroid, the largest object
apart from the Moon to have flown past the Earth since records began,
struck.
The Earth's gravitational field would have increased the asteroid's speed to
60,000mph at the moment of impact. Devastation on a scale unimaginable would
have resulted from an explosive force of kinetic energy equivalent to five
times all the world's nuclear stockpile going off at the same time. Had the
object hit on land or sea, the resultant shock waves and atmospheric
fall-out would have inflicted a fatal blow to the planet in circumstances
that are to horrific to contemplate.
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