Time for another issue already! Wow, I can't believe it.

July had some interesting events, one of which really got me thinking. About the middle of the month an asteroid passed by the Earth extremely close. It was not picked up before the pass. Instead it was discovered some days later as I recall. Then just a few days ago the news of another which will be making close approaches to us for a long time began causing quite a stir. One of the close approaches is still being investigated because there is not a zero possibility of missing us yet in the calculations. It is something like 1 in 500,000 at the present time. So as I read and heard this it caused me to think about what it would be like to be one of a handful of scientists and mathematicians that knew an impact was going to occur in say 17 years. Would they tell us, the populace in general? Or would it be a dark and terrible secret that they would hold until a plan was conceived to deal with the problem. This as we all know has been the topic of numerous movies, but this week it was a little closer to reality.

I wondered about how I would bear the burden of such knowledge and whether I thought it would be right to not tell the world at large.

The Meteoritical Society held its meeting here in our home town this last month and I am sure that we will be hearing some reports and news of that in the days and weeks to come and of course you can count on us to pass what we learn along to you.

Well, till next time enjoy the magazine. jpt