Asteroid Threat could divide society
Imagine an asteroid hurtling toward Earth, with a chance of 1 in 1000 to hit the planet. How humanity to meet the new, and there is nothing we can do about it? A browser is old NASA spacecraft details a scenario in a new science fiction novel.
In "The Darkest Side of Saturn: Odyssey of a reluctant prophet of Doom" (iUniverse, 2014), two scientists discover a space rock could hit Earth in 16 years. The discovery of the asteroid threat opposes scientists against each other, and juxtaposes science against religious fanaticism that humanity is trying to come to terms with the event of imminent death.
If a wide (3.2 km) 2 mile asteroid collided with Earth, the impact "is almost sure to be an event of destructive civilization," said the author, Tony Taylor, Tempe, Arizona. [Top 10 Ways to Destroy the Earth]
Taylor is not a NASA spokesperson or expert on asteroids, but his career has guided the spacecraft to all the planets of the solar system as a browser spacecraft at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of NASA in Pasadena, California, and later in the aviation consultancy KinetX Aerospace in Tempe, Arizona.
The asteroid that killed the dinosaurs measured at least 6 miles (10 km) in the majority of scientists agree, but a rock 2 miles wide area would be likely to cause an explosion dozens of times greater than that caused by all nuclear weapons in the world detonated at once, Taylor told Live Science.
"Hundreds of millions of people would die - if not direct consequences of hunger and war," he said.
The title of the book is based on the first photos of the night side of Saturn from Voyager. The novel explores not only the science of detecting a hazardous asteroid on a collision course with the planet, but also the social, political and religious dimensions of such apocalyptic event.
Handling the news
How humanity responds to the new threat of an asteroid depends on the possibility that the space rock could hit the planet, and how humans knew in advance the risk of collision. If the rock is due to hit Earth in a few months or years, probably would not be much controversy about this, and it is likely that governments work together to try to prepare for the impact, Taylor said. [7 Strange Asteroids: the strange space rocks in our solar system]
"If I had a gun with 1,000 rooms and a round to play Russian roulette and pull the trigger?" He asked Taylor. "Of course not."
But if the odds of the asteroid hitting the Earth were less clear, as is the case with Taylor's novel, becomes a matter of who believes there is a risk and denies he said.
For example, at first, scientists could discuss how the news should be disclosed to the public. In Taylor's book is what happens between the two scientists who discovered the asteroid. The main female character, an astronomer wants to keep the discovery confined within the scientific community until it can be confirmed unanimously. But his partner, a spacecraft engineer, chooses to disclose to the public, which eventually became behind.
Once the news comes out that the asteroid is easy to imagine how the scientific rationalism can become clouded by religious fanaticism, as Taylor suggests in his book. After the announcement, the sage does not want a religious fanatic and his followers attention. The scientist is fighting to promote the logic of faith-based dogma preacher.
Of course, Taylor's book is fiction, it is impossible to know how to play an event like this in reality.
Close encounters
There are about 4,700 potentially hazardous asteroids measuring more than 330 feet (100 meters) wide that could pose a danger to Earth, NASA estimates, and 70 percent of these rocks were not identified, says Taylor.
The meteorite that hit Russia Chelyabinsk in February 2013 only about 65 feet (20 m) was spacious, but the impact produces an explosion equivalent to 500 kilotons of TNT (about 25 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima at the end world world War), and indirectly around 1,500 people injured.
The same day, another asteroid measuring 150 feet (46 m) in diameter, known as 2012 DA14 was within 17,200 miles (27,680 kilometers) from Earth, passing below the orbits of the Moon and satellites.
NASA and other organizations constantly monitor the skies for these near-Earth objects - asteroids and comets that are pulled by the gravity of other planets in orbits that come near Earth.
But just having a monitoring program in place is not enough, says Taylor. If an asteroid is discovered, scientists are unlikely to have the last word on whether or not to act. "What is needed is a political enterprise," he said.
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