Fact following fiction? Scientists plan mission to blow up an asteroid 'hurtling towards Earth'

Fiona Macrae
The Telegraph, UK
Fri, 19 Aug 2011 06:05 UTC

Will America save the day?

Scientists plan to smash a spacecraft into an asteroid so that they are prepared for having to stop one hurtling towards Earth.

The news came as Nasa moved to calm fears that a comet is on a collision course with our planet.

The plans for a test mission to stop an asteroid from colliding with Earth come from Nasa's cousin, the European Space Agency.

In the Hollywood movie Armageddon, Bruce Willis attempts to blow up a huge asteroid hurtling towards Earth.

In real life, the mission, called Don Quixote, will see two spacecraft launched.

One will be fired at an asteroid at break-neck speed in an attempt to push it off its course. The other will analyse data with the aim of informing future missions in which the future of mankind may be at stake.

One potential target for the test mission is a 1,600ft-wide asteroid called 99942 Apophis, which has a tiny chance - around one in 250,000 - of hitting Earth in 2036.

Nasa scientists yesterday took the unusual step of officially dismissing claims sweeping the internet that comet Elenin, discovered by an astronomer last December, is on a deadly course.

Comment: This is a red herring. Elenin was never in danger of colliding with Earth. The danger lies in something NASA claims to have no awareness of - that comets 'impact' our celestial environment by causing the Sun to discharge enormous amounts of energy from afar.

Scare stories include the comet plunging the Earth into darkness for three days by blocking out the sun, colliding with Earth, moving tides or continents and throwing the planet off orbit.

It is even claimed that a fleet of UFOs are streaking towards us in the comet's wake, and that Nasa has conspired with media organisations to create a news blackout on the comet to avoid mass panic sweeping the world.

Comment: Richard Hoagland's disinformation has clearly served NASA well.

But the space agency said Elenin will never come closer to Earth than 22 million miles and will not compromise our planet in any way.

An official said: 'The truth is that Elenin has received much more attention than it deserves due to a variety of internet postings that are untrue.'

Comment: So on the one hand NASA publicises plans to blow up space rocks that may or may not be on a collision course with Earth, while on the other hand this US government agency ridicules the most outlandish claims about Comet Elenin. This 'speaking out of both sides of the mouth' is intended to reassure those waking up to the fact that Something Wicked This Way Comes that they have everything under control. They don't, of course. At most, they are planning their own escape while leaving us in the dark.