Classified Space Rocks

The U. S. Department of Defense has announced a change in policy. For 15 years, data from satellites monitoring Earth for suspicious explosions has been shared with astronomers when rocks from space have been detected. No more. Now, that data will be classified.

Astronomers are predictably upset. Data about incoming bodies increased their understanding of the Solar System, and it's data they can't really get anywhere else. It allowed astronomers to gauge the threat to Earth from collisions with asteroids or comets. That's certainly important work.

However, the DoD satellites in question were not designed to do that. They were designed, essentially, to detect nuclear explosions. Over the past decade or so, with the Soviet Union gone, that task may not have seemed as pressing. Now, North Korea seems intent on testing devices. Iran is a worrying possibility. Iran's trajectory towards becoming a nuclear power may push other nations in the area to pursue their own nuclear capability. The Pentagon may have decided it can no longer tip what its satellites can and cannot detect.

Hopefully, there is a middle ground-- a way to give the astronomers the data they've been receiving without revealing U. S. capabilities to those who should probably have to guess about such things.