Note: the Shuttle is due to launch Tuesday July 4 at 11:38 a.m. Pacific time, despite foam worries. I will blog here when I learn more. Now back to your regularly scheduled doomsday hyperbole.
Perhaps you’ve heard of asteroid 2004 XP 14. It’s something like 600-800 meters wide, and on the evening of July 2/3 it passed the Earth at a distance of roughly 430,000 km (270,000 miles), slightly more distant than the Moon. I would have blogged about it earlier, but honestly, I forgot. As near-Earth asteroids go this really is pretty close in astronomical terms, but still, 430,000 kilometers is far. And it only got as bright as 11th magnitude, which is 1/100th as bright as you can see with the unaided eye; you’d need a good ’scope and some real stargazing experience to have been able to see this rock at all.
Still, there’s a lot of astronomical interest in this asteroid because it’s well-placed for radar observations, and astronomers can use those to map out the three-dimensional structure of the asteroid, as well as get phenomenally good distance measurements. I haven’t heard how those went, but when I do I’ll write about it.
The thing is, there were a few folks who heard about this rock and were a bit scared. I’m not surprised, since most people have a hard time grasping the distance scale in the solar system, and may not understand that something can be close in astronomical terms and still be pretty far away. I expected to see a lot of doomsday mongering with this rock, but I didn’t see anything, which is another reason I forgot about it.
But then I happened to see a BBC web page about it. I took a frame grab of it:
Look at the headline: "Asteroid set for close encounter", and beneath it: " A large asteroid is set to pass Earth in a close encounter which scientists say will pose no danger."
That’s great that they would make sure that is up front and center, thus allaying any fears people might have of this. But then take a look at the illustration to the right. It shows an asteroid burning up over Earth, obviously about to impact! The caption says "Scientists keep a close eye on asteroids passing near Earth", which is true enough, but I rather wish they had used a different image. I wouldn’t say it’s really alarmist, but it’s certainly a poor choice, especially given the stress in the article that XP14 passed 400,000 kilometers off. This isn’t enough to chastise them about, but I think it’s worth noting here.
However, ITV news posted this image on their news page about XP14:
Nice huh? Their article is slightly more alarmist than the BBC, though they too do stress it won’t hit. Joining the fray is an ABC video linked from a Yahoo!News article, with a caption that says we "narrowly" avoided an impact; again, though, the video itself makes it clear it was still a long way off in human terms.
The Huffington Post joined the fray too, posting a picture with this headline:
I left a comment there, too. I probably should have corrected the spelling as well! 
Anyway, if you see more dubious headlines or images, feel free to comment.
July 3rd, 2006 at 9:34 pm
These articles are just more proof most news agencies aren’t in the news business, they’re in the entertainment business.
July 3rd, 2006 at 11:00 pm
If you should have corrected Huffington Post misspelling of “asteroid”, Phil, then I feel obliged to correct yours, where in this very blog post you wrote, “There article is slightly more alarmist than the BBC…”
Repeat after me: “There” is positional.
“Their” is possessive.
No go and write that on the blackboard 1,000 times, or until another astroid (sic) nearly doesn’t crash into Earth…
July 4th, 2006 at 12:06 am
Hurrah for the spelling mafia.
July 4th, 2006 at 12:51 am
BBC is (usually) rather level-headed as far as news are concerned.
July 4th, 2006 at 1:22 am
Sky news website had this article
http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-13530969,00.html
Which has to be one of the most non-alarmist ones out there. This is strange for Sky as they normally are very sensationalist, thumbs up to them this.
Stuart
July 4th, 2006 at 4:02 am
They ofeten paint news they can in a sensationalist way, which adds nicely to their overall ignorance on about any subject.
July 4th, 2006 at 4:40 am
You forgot to mention that space is BIG, Phil.
–
July 4th, 2006 at 5:05 am
Just one question
Have anybody seen the explaination of why earth is tilted 23 degrees on axis and saturn at 90 degrees on their axis?
July 4th, 2006 at 6:00 am
BA writes: “most people have a hard time grasping the distance scale in the solar system”. This soccer-based analogy might help: Astronomy and football, http://www.esa.int/esaED/SEM0076Y3EE_teachers_0.html
July 4th, 2006 at 10:07 am
Somehow I feel less threatened by “astroids”.
July 4th, 2006 at 10:23 am
Silly Phil, the world ended a long time ago. You’re in Hell, and the Devil chose science budget cuts as your form of torment.
July 4th, 2006 at 10:26 am
Since it seems to be pedantry day here on the Bad Astronomy Blog, I feel obligated to point out, X, that Uranus is the planet with the 90 degree axial tilt and not Saturn.
July 4th, 2006 at 10:39 am
I’d just as soon see alarmist articles if they get some funding for technologies to divert incoming debris that may one day pose a genuine threat. The technology to go out and divert asteroids would have valuable spin-offs, I suspect, and it couldn’t hurt to be prepared should a genuine alarm one day be sounded.
It’s certain that if no alarm is raised until that day, there will be nothing in place to solve it. We just don’t think that far ahead.
July 4th, 2006 at 10:58 am
OT: Firefox hasn’t been showing the RSS feed as a live bookmark for me for some time now. I only get a “Live Bookmark failed to load” error. Anybody else got this problem?
July 4th, 2006 at 12:25 pm
The press should write an article about “earth-crossing†asteroids with the headline:
Collision with asteroid inevitable!
(but which asteroid and when?)
July 4th, 2006 at 5:49 pm
I noticed CNN used video of a large rock passing by a large satellite in their video article. I didn’t know we had any orbiting at 430,000 km (also, the image at scale would have been closer to 300 miles or so.
jbs
July 4th, 2006 at 8:30 pm
Pretty alarmist article at Aero-News Network says it could “pretty much wipe out life as we know it.”
I doubt that. The dinosaur-killer was VASTLY bigger, around 10 km diameter, if the Alvarex theory was correct.
At the U of Arizona’s Earth Impact Effects Program, you can calculate the damage yourself (the link is to my results) — it wouldn’t be much fun if you’re outside within 100 km (3rd degree burns, buildings destroyed, massive fires) but there’s no way such a small rock would be a threat to global life.
July 4th, 2006 at 8:31 pm
Oops. Obviously, I meant “Alvarez.”
July 5th, 2006 at 7:03 am
I read about 2004 XP14 a few days ago, and they did say that it would not hit, this time. They hinted that it might in a few years. However, it seems that new findings have shown (definitively) it won’t be a problem, for this century, at least.
Does anyone else find it ironic that there has been more press coverage of Meryl Streep’s role in “The Devil Wears Prada”, than of something that might actually have an impact (no pun intended) on life on Earth at some point in the future. Considering the damage XP14 could have caused, they could have used this as an example of why government’s of the world should be taking steps to be more prepared.
July 5th, 2006 at 7:20 am
Governments prepared? Does anyone remember FEMA?
I expect this is one good example for why we haven’t been visited by aliens. Their governments don’t plan ahead either,,,
GAry 7
July 5th, 2006 at 8:47 am
Harry, no, the RSS feed is working for me in Firefox.
July 5th, 2006 at 9:28 pm
OK, mister smarty-pants, the next one I send will be 430,000 km (270,000 miles) meters wide, and it’ll pass the Earth at a distance of roughly 600-800 meters.
GOD
aka ‘I am the decider’
July 6th, 2006 at 8:25 am
Tim G wrote (in post 32171)…”…The press should write an article about “earth-crossing†asteroids…”
I reckon that infers that the asteroid has impacted. I think he means “earth-orbit-crossing†asteroids” surely, giving us a chance to (maybe) do something about it, or not, if there is no chance of striking Earth at least on that orbit of the Sun. The rubble that it trails, may eventually burn up in our atmosphere on subsequent orbits of the Earth in the following years, as meteors.
Ivan.