curlybumfluff

If the public knew an asteroid was on a collision course with Earth there would be widespread hysteria and a breakdown of civil society. If you knew of a credible asteroid threat, when would you release the information if at all?

No such thing as sensitive information at the ESA? All pure science? No classified information or protocols about how and when to release doomsday scenario information? Not going to wait until the observations are confirmed or refined? Not going to keep it a secret until AFTER the redirect mission to avoid unnecessary widespread panic, riots, looting, violence, anarchy? Not going to try to avoid a situation more harmful to society than the impact itself? It's a tricky one: the public's right to know vs. public health and safety, law and order.

Logic dictates that in the event of a credible asteroid threat being detected by a government space agency, the public would be kept int the dark. Organizing an international conference under the guise of a "hypothetical" asteroid threat however would allow international co-operation without raising suspicion even among participants who would be unaware of the true value of their contributions. Isn't this what the IAA planetary defense conference actually is? Didymos isn't the target of the 2020 asteroid redirect/impact mission is it?

Ceplecha was still refining an orbital prediction for the great daylight fireball of 1972(using military radar data) 7 years after the event and predicted a possible impact event in August 1997. Who in astronomy circles was worrying about this potentially regionally devastating and undoubtedly dangerous asteroid? STS-85 was orbiting the Earth at the time with an infrared camera but no mention is made of this object. Did the ESA and NASA look for it in August 1997? Was NASA and the ESA really asleep at the wheel or are they just hiding the truth? This object is not listed as a NEO. Where is it now?

Ceplecha spent 7 years refining an orbital prediction so we could watch fireworks? I think he was trying to warn humanity of a real and serious threat. I think he was trying to save thousands or even millions of lives. NASA says it only starting surveying for asteroid threats the following year(1998). I wonder why? In actual fact they sent the DOD head of the clementine mission(who received an award for outstanding leadership even though the mission supposedly failed) to Australia a couple of years earlier with hardware for "project wormwood". They were looking for something specific. I suspect NASA is not sharing everything with the ESA. Put your thinking caps on and lift your game. Investigate this object properly. Survival of our species may depend on it.