ASTEROID 1996 JA1 NEAR MISS WITH EARTH

September/October, 1996
Source: UFO Magazine.
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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