Asteroids: Past Impacts & Near Misses

[Balenton]

[Balenton]

March 11, 1998:

The first reports about asteroid 1997 XF11 airs on the Evening News and a rising tide of anxiety consumes world media. Humanity awakes to a black Thursday on March 12 and stares at blaring headlines: "Asteroid Heads Towards Earth!"

August 6, 1998:

Beneath a photo of asteroid 1980-H CNN reports, “U.S. space scientists said Wednesday they have discovered two real asteroids heading in Earth's direction…these asteroids are not expected to come anywhere near Earth's orbit for at least several decades. The two asteroids, each of them at least one mile across, have been classified as ‘potentially hazardous objects’ by the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, because they are large enough to cause global effects if they hit Earth…the asteroids passed within 2 million miles of Earth during their last orbit.“

May 19, 1999:

Exactly 3 years after asteroid 1996 JA-1 nearly collided with Earth, BBC News reports "A large asteroid could miss the Earth by only 38,000 kilometres (20,000 miles) in 2027, according to new astronomical observations. This is an extremely close shave - the Moon orbits 10 times further from Earth…the Earth's gravity could perturb the asteroid's path, possibly leading to an impact in 2039. The near-miss trajectory of a newly-discovered asteroid, called 1999 AN10, was announced in April. Now, the observational data of Australian astronomer F. Zoltowski allows calculations of just how close the asteroid may come to Earth. Astronomers at the Minor Planet Center at the US Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory used Zoltowski's work to work out an estimated approach distance for AN10…The fly-by will occur on Aug. 7, 2027. But the closest distance that AN10 could come to the Earth on that day is only 38,000km…calculations confirm the initial speculation that the asteroid might approach within the Earth's sphere of gravitational influence. It could therefore be perturbed in such a way that it might impact some years later.

"Dr Benny Peiser of Liverpool John Moore's University in England says that the chaotic behaviour of this asteroid makes it practically impossible to predict all possible approaches for more than a few decades after any close encounter. He says the orbit will remain dangerously close to the orbit of the Earth for about 600 years…If it did strike, it would cause continent-wide devastation and alter the Earth's climate."

December 5, 1999:

Millions of Americans witness a giant meteorite Rock grazing the Earth's atmosphere, cutting a flaming streak over Alabama and several neighboring states.

[Balenton]

[Balenton]

January 18, 2000:

With the force of multiple nuclear warheads, a giant meteor explodes over Tagish Lake in British Columbia near Alaska.

February 7, 2000:

The University of Pisa issues a "scientifically urgent" warning about the trajectory of Asteroid 2000 BF19, aimed to arrive near Earth in 2022. Astronomer Andrea Milani breaks the code of silence engaged by all professional star gazers gagged by the U.S. government's decree to keep secret all discoveries of Earth threatening rocks from space. Milani is immediately besieged by a swarm of government scientists trained to "creatively recalculate" the trajectory of rocks like 2000 BF19. MSNBC picks up the banner with reports that cite astronomers who have been "gathering additional data about the orbits of asteroids so that they could eventually be excluded as a threat...Two years ago, the first such asteroid alert caused quite a stir," notes MSNBC, "more recent alerts have been greeted much more calmly." More "calmly" because the news never really surfaces for the public to consider in a dominator controlled media. MSNBC boasts that, for mile wide asteroid 1997 XF11, aimed to rendezvous with Earth in 2028, concerns were "erased within days." Microsoft Network reveals that in April, June, and October of 1999, four more asteroids were discovered to be headed towards Earth, but, after government officials creatively recalculated trajectories for these rocks, concerns were "erased within days."

July 10, 2000:

BBC News reports, "Earth-Approaching Space Rock Found By Accident - The space rock was found by accident on 2 July by astronomer Leonard Amburgey of Fitchburg, Massachusetts. He typed in the wrong celestial co-ordinates into his computer-controlled telescope and stumbled across the [1.8 mile] sized object. The asteroid has been given the temporary designation 2000 NM by the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Astronomers say this is the brightest near-Earth asteroid to be discovered in the past year. However, they are concerned that it was found by accident and was missed by the half dozen professional minor-planet surveys currently in operation. At the moment, it is about [13 million miles] from Earth. It crosses inside the Earth's orbit at the end of July."

September 1, 2000:

Asteroid 2000 QW7, half a kilometer wide, races past Earth at about twelve times the distance of the Moon. The "Near-Earth Object" was discovered last weekend on August 26, 2000, with NASA/JPL's Near Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) system. QW7 caught the attention of astronomers because it was fast-moving and unusually bright. At 13th magnitude, amateur astronomers could easily spot the Rock through 8-inch telescopes. 2000 QW7 falls into a category of Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) called Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs).

November 4, 2000:

Frontpage headlines worldwide again report that an asteroid is on course to cross paths with Earth. A rock the size of an office building, and named 2000 SG344, is due to arrive on September 21, 2030, with a 1 in 500 chance of impact. Scientists announce that if it hits the Earth it will release 100 times the energy of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. For three days a group of international astronomers analyzed data on the rock before making today's announcment. "This is the highest probability of impact that we have ever calculated for an object," said Paul Chodas, project engineer for the Near-Earth Object Program.

[Balenton]

July 24, 2001:

Front page news in Rochester reports a massive space rock that streaked over our city at 6:18 p.m. the evening before (notice the multiples of 3 in the time: 6:18 - the book Rock Prophecy contains a chapter titled "Multiples of Three" which chronicles the repeated incidents in the Hendrix legacy of numbers that are multiples of 3.)



At right is an amazing photo of the space rock that buzzed over our city just hours prior to the publication of our ad that mentions the "Hendrix/asteroid/Microsoft connection" - in preparation for the first show from the band that is spreads word of Rock Prophecy.

October 8, 2001:

Space-Frontier.org reports, "an asteroid thought to be between 50 and 100 meters in diameter zoomed by our planet at little more than twice the distance to the Moon -- a whisker by the standards of our solar system's size. The object was first detected just two days prior. Its path was determined only the day before the close encounter."

Incredibly, NO mainstream media covered this event. It was reported only after another big asteroid wizzed by even closer on January 7, 2002 (next)...

January 7, 2002:

"Earth Escapes Brush With Killer Asteroid" is the CNN headline today. "The Near-Earth Object '2001 YB5' brightened enough for even simple telescopes to spot just before it raced past our planet on Monday. Many scientists classify it as a close call. 'The impact would be quite tremendous,' said Benny Peiser of the Royal Astronomical Society in Great Britain...In the year 2027, an asteroid between one kilometer and a mile in length is expected pass even closer...later on, either asteroid could pose risks to the planet, along with countless rocks lurking in the shadows that have yet to be identified, astronomers warn...What particularly troubles Peiser is that scientists only first spotted 2001 YB5 in late December. What if it had been heading on a collision course? 'That's not enough time for any initiatives for deflection. If we had 20 or 30 years' time, then we could develop a technology to deflect an object. With our current lacked of preparedness, we are helpless,' he said."

And as if this isn't enough, Mitch Battros of ECTV continues, "As reported by my colleague David Whitehouse of BBC, an asteroid discovered just a month ago is making a close approach to the Earth. The name of this NEA (Near-Earth Asteroid) is '2001 YB5'…Astronomers say that its proximity reminds us just how many objects there are in space that could strike our planet with devastating consequences. Moving closer to the Sun, the asteroid is passing by at less than three times the Moon's distance from us - just 830,000 kilometers (510,000 miles) away on 7 January, which is close in cosmic terms. It is thought to be 300 meters in size - large enough to wipe out an entire country if it struck the Earth.

[Balenton]

"2001 YB5 was discovered in early December by the NEAT (Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking) survey telescope observing from Mount Palomar in California...It circles the Sun every 1,321 days. Astronomers add that it is 'potentially hazardous,' meaning there is a chance that it may strike the Earth sometime in the future. Such a close encounter is rare but not unprecedented. However, the only other known object that will come closer to the Earth is an asteroid called 1999 AN10, which will pass a shade closer on 7 August, 2027."

This CNN report contained an actual picture of the asteroid. The rock was visible to millions of people on Earth, so there was no way any government could suppress or whitewash and minimize the threat of this event. Instead, the editors of all major media simply reduced every mention of the asteroid into tiny little blurbs buried deep inside newspapers. Here are typical examples (see left:)

The article in USA Today is equally microscopic (see right:)

This is an obvious ploy to minimize the event and train us to shrug shoulders and ignor the threat.

March 8, 2002:

On March 19, 2002, almost two weeks after Earth was nearly pulverized by a rock named asteroid 2002 EM7, CNN finally reports, "A sizable asteroid zipped near our planet this month without anyone noticing because it traveled through an astronomical blind spot, scientists said. The space boulder passed Earth within 288,000 miles - or 1.2 times the distance to the moon - on March 8, but since it came from the direction of the sun, scientists did not observe it until four days later. The object, slightly larger than one that flattened a vast expanse of Siberia in 1908, was one of the 10 closest known asteroids to approach Earth, astronomers said.

Asteroid 2002 EM7 took us by surprise. It is yet another reminder of the general impact hazard we face,' said Benny Peiser, a European scientist who monitors the threat of Earth-asteroid collisions. If it pierced the atmosphere, the approximately 70-meter-long rock could have disintegrated and unleashed the energy equivalent of a 4-megaton nuclear bomb, researchers said. 'If it were over a populated area, like Atlanta, it would have basically flattened it,' said Gareth Williams, associate director of the International Astronomical Union Minor Planet Center in Boston, Mass…Astronomers maintain that constant surveillance is necessary to identify more killer rocks in our neighborhood and ensure that none take our planet by surprise, in particular those traveling near the blinding light of the sun. 'If one comes from the direction of the sun, we're not going to see it,' Williams said. According to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 2002 EM7 could smack into Earth in 2093."

"If a comet should appear from behind the Sun, we might only have a one or two year warning."

- Carolyn Shoemaker, McNeil/Lehrer News Hour, PBS 7/23/94

[Balenton]

[Balenton]

This 2002 EM7 saga highlights the case of The Incredible Shrinking Asteroid News story. Our managerial class of editors (are they really all the same person?), for almost all media, prevented any mention of this incident. In fact, it was only after lengthy surfing through internet search engines that I stumbled across this lone CNN report buried deep within CNN's "Space" news archives. Without question the men who control media have ordered their lapdog editors to keep as many people as possible in the dark about potential asteroid impacts.

April 4, 2002:

World media again reports predictions of an asteroid (1950 DA) aimed at Earth. The significance of this report is that it's another of the "approved" perspectives from NASA and government, designed to persuade us that the threat is way off in the future, out of sight/out of mind, and of little concern to civilization today.

1) The rock aimed at Earth will not be "spotted" very much in advance by the tiny network of astronomers and amateurs that search the skies in our time.

2) Contrary to todays benign report, news of any asteroid that is aimed to hit Earth within the next century will be concealed by the men who control media. Any astronomer who tries to announce an imminent impact will find our government creatively re-calculating the rock's trajectory to "discredit" the astronomer who breaks ranks and tries to communicate directly with the public.

3) This report is aimed to portray asteroids in a non-threatening way. Our ruling class wants us to remain in denial, while we're manipulated into supporting the Defense Agency's "anti-missile" system.

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[Balenton]

[Balenton]

June 14, 2002:

Asteroid 2002 MN nearly collides with Earth. All world media suppresses this story until five days later when CNN finally reports, "An asteroid the size of a football field passed extremely close to Earth last week but it remained undetected until days later, according to astronomers. The space rock missed our planet last week by only 75,000 miles (120,000 km), about one-third the distance to the moon, making the near collision one of the closest ever recorded. Cruising at 6.2 miles (10 km) per second, the big boulder could have unleashed some major firepower had it struck, according to the NEO (Near Earth Objects) Information Center in Leicester, England. The destructive force might have been comparable to an asteroid or comet that exploded over Siberia in 1908, which flattened 77 square miles (2,000 square km) of trees, according to the NEO…The asteroid, designated 2002 MN, was first spotted on June 17 by scientists with the Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) project in Socorro, New Mexico, three days after it gave the Earth a close shave."

This incident is the THIRD (known) near miss of Earth by asteroids in the past six months.

July 24, 2002:

ABC News announces, "You might mark February 1, 2019 on your calendar. That's the day scientists say a mile wide asteroid could collide with the Earth, and the impact could destroy a continent…They just discovered this asteroid and they'll know more after observing it longer."

Notice the clincher at the end of this New York Times article (see left), "astronomers will probably be able to rule out any chance of impact ."

This statement is the foregone conclusion that ALL modern reports of asteroids are required to conform to. All astronomers associated with NASA and the US Government are ordered to "creatively re-calculate" the orbits of any asteroid or comet on a collision course with Earth. The intent is to pacify the public and nullify any cause for concern. Scientists are today engaged in cooking the books, all news of space rocks is Enron-ed & WorldCom-ed - with data skewed into fake happy endings. The interesting thing about news of 2002 NT7 is that it was leaked to media from England before NASA had the chance to water down the trajectory calculations. The astronomer who reported this asteroid's path didn't conform with NASA's order to fudge the numbers and "prove" that the rock is not a threat to Earth.

And notice the names given to June's "2002 MN" asteroid (see above) and July's "2002 NT7" asteroid - are these references to Microsoft Network (MN) and Windows NT (NT)? Certainly the witch doctors at NASA who name these rocks are aware of Microsoft's role in suppressing the Hendrix Rock Prophecy.

[Balenton]

August 18, 2002:

World media covers the approach of asteroid 2002 NY40 as it passes within 330,000 miles of Earth, slightly farther than the distance of the moon. This half mile wide rock comes close enough to be seen through small telescopes or binoculars. It is unusual for an asteroid to be so bright. Don Yeomans, who manages NASA'a Near-Earth Object Program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said, "Asteroids are hard to see because they're mostly black like charcoal.

CNN reports, "Scientists planned to 'ping' it with radio waves, the radar observations can help determine whether the asteroid...will pose a threat to Earth in the future."

October 3, 2002:

The Associated Press reports, "At least 30 times per year a space rock slashes into the Earth's atmosphere and explodes, releasing energy equal to that of an atomic bomb, Air Force Brig. Gen. Simon Worden told members of a House Science subcommittee. Worden said the Air Force in 1996 detected an asteroid burst over Greenland that released energy equal to about 100,000 tons of explosives. He said similar events occurred in 1908 over Siberia, in the 1940s over Central Asia and over the Amazon basin in the 1930s. Had any of these rocks struck over a populated area, thousand, perhaps hundreds of thousands might have perished, he said. Edwarsd Weiler, head of NASA's office of space science, told the House committee that his agency is finding about 100 new [Near-Earth ) Objects] each year...If an asteroid the size of a cruise ship smashed into the ocean, it could cause huge waves capable of drowning coastal cities on two continents."

[Balenton]

October 7, 2002:

CNN reports, "Residents in Utah, Colorado and southern Wyoming saw a fireball, which some said had a long tail of green, orange and purple flames that raced across the night sky. 'People said it had a 500-foot tail and it was huge, a meteor, and green and orange,' La Plata County, Colorado, sheriff's dispatcher Kristy Lee said."

November 22, 2002:

"Satellite Study Establishes Frequency of Megaton-sized Asteroid Impacts," SpaceDaily.com writes, "Earth is threatened by enormous asteroids. New research at The University of Western Ontario establishes a better baseline for the frequency of large impacts that may cause serious damage on the ground. Based on these new estimates the average chances the Earth will be hit by an asteroid impact capable of causing serious regional damage (roughly one megaton TNT equivalent energy) is close to once per century. The study, led by Peter Brown, Canada Research Chair in Meteor Science and Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics & Astronomy at Western, appears in the November 21 issue of the prestigious journal Nature…The revised estimate suggests Earth's upper atmosphere is hit about once a year by asteroids that release energy equivalent to five kilotons of TNT. The object that exploded above Tunguska, Siberia in 1908 was considered 'small' (30 to 50 metres across), yet its energy was big enough to flatten 2,000 square kilometres of forest. It would have completely destroyed a city the size of New York…'It seems likely there is also a non-random component to the impact flux at these smaller sizes which would suggest our estimates are lower bounds to the true impact risk,' says Brown."

[Balenton]

August 24, 2003:

The Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research Project (an MIT Lincoln Laboratory program funded by the United States Air Force and NASA) discover a near Earth asteroid they name 2003 QQ47 and rates it a classification of 1 on the Torino scale of impact hazards. At around 1.2 km in width, 2003 QQ47 called "an event meriting careful monitoring" by astronomers, is calculated to arrive at Earth on March 21, 2014 (the birthday of Son House and anniversary of Jimi Hendrix playing in Rochester, NY, where Son House lived).

September 27, 2003:

The closest known asteroid flyby in history gets almost no media coverage, a rock named 2003 SQ222 came within 54,700 miles (88,000 kilometers) of Earth. It was not detected until after it hurtled by.

[Balenton]

September 28, 2003:

A blazing meteor appears over India near coastal Orissa. Media in Bhubaneswar, India report, "Villagers in Kendrapara district stumbled upon two strange objects this morning. While the object at the village of Benakand was blown to smithereens, the one at Paschima Suniti, weighing 5.7 kg, was intact. The ball of fire, described by scientists as a meteorite, streaked across the sky from west to east before landing on a thatched house at about 6.30 p.m. yesterday and was witnessed by people in at least 11 districts in the coastal belt. One of the 11 persons admitted to hospitals in Kendrapara, Jajpur, and Mayurbhanj districts died in the SCB Medical College Hospital at Cuttack today. Sukadeb Singh age 75, who along with two others, had been shifted from Kendrapara hospital to Cuttack, died this morning. Five persons, including three from one family, were admitted to hospitals in three different places of Jajpur district while three others were hospitalized at Kaptipada in Mayurbhanj district.

"The three persons, who fell unconscious after the incident, were recovering in the Kaptipada Hospital. A 75-year-old man, Harekrushna Behera, complained that he had lost his vision after seeing the ball of fire. In Kolkata, M.P. Brila Planetarium clarified that the streak of luminous yellow light which turned to orange and finally brilliant blue was a meteorite."

The meteor impact in India is just the beginning. While Paul Allen's PBS series, "The Blues" is airing a dumb episode about the history of blues in New Orleans, a second meteor smashes into a house in that city! Mitch Battros of ECTV reports, "A second meteorite crashes to Earth causing extensive damage to a home in New Orleans. Could there be a connection to a meteorite which hit in India injuring five people? I would not rule this out. The question might be; is there something or some event which is 'pulling' celestial orbs towards Earth?"

[NOTE: This PBS series about Blues in New Orleans was produced by Mr. Allen after he arranged for my writings about blues, published by MCA, to be taken off the market. Mr. Allen was in the process of brainwashing the American public with his PBS show about blues in New Orleans when the Deity protested by tossing a rock from space into New Orleans. And to confirm how miraculous this intervention was, almost every single media outlet in the United States followed orders to CONCEAL THIS STORY. Like a waking nightmare, we are living in a society trained to agree with media and accept their "judgements" that these events are not worth informing the public about.]

In New Orleans, Mark Schleifstein of the Times Picayune, reports, "A meteorite which measures 9" in diameter crashes into a residents roof. Then the orb crashes through the second story floor, then through the first story floor, and then is deeply embedded into the concrete foundation. Luckily, home owner Roy Fausset and his family were not home. Fausset says 'The powder room door was open and it looked like an artillery shell had hit the room.' It was a sandy colored rock that appeared to have been burned around its edges. Preliminary tests by scientists at Tulane University indicate this particular rock came from outer space."

[Balenton]

January 4, 2004:

A meteor is videotaped blazing over Spain.

January 13, 2004:

BBC News reports that a 30m object, later designated 2004 AS1, had a one-in-four chance of hitting the planet within 36 hours. It could have caused local devastation and the researchers contemplated a call to President Bush before new data finally showed there was no danger. The procedures for raising the alarm in such circumstances are now being revised. At the time, the president's team would have been putting the final touches to a speech he was due to make the following day at the headquarters of NASA, the US space agency. In it he planned to reset the course of manned spaceflight, sending it back to the Moon and on to Mars, but he could have had something very different to say. He could have begun by warning the world it was about to be hit by a space rock…The Minor Planet Center in Massachusetts - the clearing house for such observations - posted details on the internet requesting attention from astronomers…2004 AS1? It turned out to be bigger than anyone had thought - about 500m wide. It eventually passed the Earth at a distance of about 12 million km."

February 24, 2004:

"Astronomers have revealed how they came within minutes of alerting the world to a potential asteroid strike last month," says the BBC News. "Some scientists believed on 13 January that a 30m object, later designated 2004 AS1, had a one-in-four chance of hitting the planet within 36 hours...before new data finally showed there was no danger...the asteroid had a 25% chance of striking the Earth's Northern Hemisphere in a few days...2004 AS1...turned out to be bigger than anyone had thought - about 500m wide. It eventually passed the Earth at a distance of about 12 million km."

March 18, 2004:

What this article conceals is the fact that this rock was spotted just three days earlier, which reinforces the point that the Rock that Jimi predicted will not be seen in time to do anything about it. And the article emphasizes that, if 2004 FH had hit, "it would have simply but spectacularly burned up [in the[ atmosphere." But another article from MSN.com claims, "An object of this size, were it to take direct aim, would likely break apart or explode in the atmosphere, astronomers say. The result could cause local damage. An object just slightly larger could survive to the surface and destroy a city." In other words, the explosion in the sky, just blowing up in the atmosphere, would flatten and burn everything on ground within radius. This dumb article makes it look like we'd all be treated to a fireworks show.

MSN.com goes on to report, "Astronomers can't say whether the asteroid might encounter Earth in the future as it continues to orbit the sun…Researchers say significant new spending would be required to purposely find and track asteroids smaller than 0.6 miles (1 kilometer). Asteroid hunters…are not set up to spot all of the smaller objects that inhabit the same general space as Earth. There could be millions. Those that are found involve serendipity…This spring, two recently found comets are expected to become visible to the naked eye for observers around the world."