I wanted to provide an update/education on something interesting. As some of you know, I was trained as a “physician-scientist” meaning that in addition to my M.D. degree, I obtained a graduate degree in Pharmacology (the study of medications) at the same time. As such, on some of my blogs, you will see me delve into certain areas of interest in the scientific field.
Recently, NASA managed to hit an asteroid with what was described as a spacecraft the size of a golf cart traveling at 15,000 miles per hour with the intent of altering the trajectory/orbit of the asteroid. It sounds like something out of the movie “Armageddon”, and it basically was. It took 10 months for the spacecraft to reach the asteroid and it was controlled by radio waves and monitored by telescopes on earth and in space. I have to say I was very impressed that they were able to target an asteroid so far away.
Then the thoughts crept in….” Why are they doing this and what the heck do they know and are not telling us?” Apparently, there is a chance that an asteroid can impact the earth and create another “extinction-level event” (you have to love the euphemistic or clinical names scientists and politicians come up with), such as the one which supposedly caused the extinction of the dinosaurs.
So, the goal was to see if we could alter the trajectory of an earthbound asteroid by shooting a small object with a tremendous amount of speed at it. It will take some time to determine that, but the primary objective of actually being able to hit that thing was definitely a success. Some other thoughts that popped into my head were since the “kamikaze” spacecraft (fortunately, nobody was on board) was compared to being the size of a golf cart, wouldn’t you want it to be a heck of a lot bigger? At least the size of an 18-wheeler or an Amtrak train. For one thing, I would say if the goal was to disrupt the trajectory of the asteroid that size would matter. Also, if you are looking for accuracy, shooting a larger object may increase your chances of hitting the target. I know, my mind goes into strange places at times. I am not an astrophysicist, but I must give credit to NASA for pulling that off. And really want to know what prompted them to start trying this now.
This story is interesting as in the post-pandemic era, we are seeing some seriously strange things. It was only a few months ago that there was a congressional session on “Unexplained Aerial Phenomena”, or UAP. Again with the names. They used to be called flying saucers or UFOs, but we have now upgraded to UAP. It sounds much more scientific and official.
In short, the Navy released videos of fighter pilots encountering flying objects that did not quite adhere to the tenets of physics as we know them. The UAPs traveled at extremely high speeds and flew circles around our fighters and were able to seamlessly fly in our atmosphere and dive into the ocean at a moment’s notice. They also have a penchant for hanging around nuclear reactors which is very reassuring. Again, the questions started popping into my mind. “At the end of a pandemic and with wars, civil unrest, and economic collapse, why is Congress having a session on flying saucers?” Again, what do they know that we don’t?
And since Roswell in the 1950s, the military has been rather tight-lipped (that’s putting it mildly) about anything having to do with UFOs (sorry, UAPs). All of a sudden, the Navy just releases videos and acknowledges this stuff? On top of that, they snuck a new branch into the military called “The Space Force.” Very weird, but as a scientist, I just wanted to provide an update on some interesting things.
I hope you enjoyed the blog. I try to incorporate humor into them when I can for entertainment purposes, so I am not just another stuffy and dry academic. Who wants to read that crap? At least I will summarize it in an interesting way so you will tend to actually enjoy and remember what you are reading. That’s just my teaching style. As for what to think about UAPs and shooting objects at asteroids, I don’t really have an opinion currently apart from “Wow, that is really interesting. Let’s see what happens next.”
