Summary

Summary The International Astronomical Union Circular #6837 released by Brian Marsden on March 11 was published to report the findings Marsden’s group had come across. Marsden stated in the publication that “the chance of an actual collision is small…but one is clearly not out of the question” (Marsden). Marsden’s group has supposedly come across evidence that supported that the asteroid 119XF11 could possibly collide with the earth. Just one day later, evidence dismissing the report was found and published. I think the scientists should not have published their original data, which showed the small possibility of the asteroid 1197XF11 colliding with the earth. Their theories should not have been published without months, maybe years of lose observation of the asteroid and its orbit. A closer investigation of the asteroid showed that there was no chance at all that the asteroid would collide with the earth. If the astronomers had waited to further investigate their “discovery,” they would have known that there were pictures of the asteroid taken in 1990, pictures which provided hard evidence that the asteroid would in fact not collide with the earth. The sad thing is, the day after asteroid, earth, think, published, report, day, threat, media, found, evidence, colliding, collide, astronomers, years, thought, should, same, out, marsden, fact, discovery, come, about, waited, thirty, theories, showed, scientists, reports, publication, prevent, possible, possibility, pictures, people