[Rockhounds] Midnight On The (Cosmic) Firing Line

[Paul]

Below are a selection of news articles, of varying
sensationalism, to remind everyone what crowded
and potentially dangerous solar, neighborhood
that we occupy.

NASA Asteroid Hunter Explains the Risks that
Near Earth Objects Pose to Planet, Hanna Osborne,
Newsweek,
<http://www.newsweek.com/asteroid-day-nasa-risk-earth-neos-629965>

Space rock found to be traveling With Earth
Scientists have discovered that Earth is being
tailed by an Asteroid, Sean Martin, Express.
<http://www.express.co.uk/news/science/868068/ASTEROID-belt-nasa-end-of-the-world-earth-orbit>

Asteroid 2012 TC4: Space rock could come
back and Smash into Earth in the near future
The asteroid which had a near miss with Earth
could come back and smash into the planet in
the future, researchers have warned,
Sean Martin, Express, Oct 13, 2017
<http://www.express.co.uk/news/science/866149/Asteroid-2012-TC4-hit-Earth-end-of-the-world-nasa-esa>

How We Discovered, Lost, and Rediscovered
the First Asteroid. It was a lot of math and
staring through telescopes. Popular Mechanics
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/solar-system/a28667/how-we-discovered-lost-and-rediscovered-the-first-asteroid/>

Samples Brought Back From Asteroid Itokawa
Reveal 'Rubble Pile' Had a Violent Past, Curtin
University Posted October 18, 2017
<http://spaceref.com/asteroids/samples-brought-back-from-asteroid-itokawa-reveal-rubble-pile-had-a-violent-past.html>

Near-Earth Objects News
<https://watchers.news/category/near-earth-objects/>

What I am worried about is not the asteroids
that we know about. What worries me are the
asteroids that we do not know about and appear
abruptly out of the darkness like a drunk driver
on a New Orleans street.

Go read “Asteroid 2017 TF5 flew past Earth at
0.73 LD, 4 days before discovery, October 16, 2017
<https://watchers.news/2017/10/16/asteroid-2017-tf5/>

Unlike the dinosaurs, we have, if we want to develop it,

the technology to possibly defend ourselves from
wayward asteroids.

Yours,

Paul H.