Two Near Misses

Each of the past two days, NASA has watched a small asteroid whip past Earth at a distance well within lunar orbit.  Both were under 100 feet across, so they posed no real danger to Earth even if they had hit our world, but they continue a pattern of such close calls that NASA and the astronomical community have recently documented.

That rash of near misses this year would seem nicely timed, as they have come during a U. S. presidential election campaign, but none of the candidates have taken the opportunity to push for even a modest planetary defense program.  Odds are, they'll get away with that approach, but the truth is that they are ignoring an obvious threat.  Hopefully, we won't have to lose a city, or worse, before the policymakers of the world act.

The mainstream news media has also ignored the situation, at least in America.  Perhaps proposing the theory that these asteroids are in fact pot shots from aliens preparing to destroy Earth would get the attention of a group too interested in celebrities, gossip, and easy, gee whiz headlines.