Yes I would like to know whether this is something that has dramatically increased or because we are now able to detect them more? Before the Internet I realise I would not have such easy access to such information so would never have known, something obviously true for all of us. Also far more people are sky watching due to the relatively low price of telescopes, vastly increasing the chance of spotting them.

Any of our resident experts have any information about this?

We are actively looking for them now, where in the past we weren't..

So its hard to say if there are more or it's just we didn't see them before.

Also cold war secrets would mean we wouldn't announce anything picked up by our radar stations so scientists and astronomers would likely never to have heard about some of these big rocks coming in so close unless they observed them.

I don't think that its that we are detecting them better or that more ppl are watching the skies. There has has always been astronomers and scientist watching the skies, always. I mean ppl have watched the skies since man was created. Though they didn't have telescopes of course. But now you have huge powerful telescopes in all the countries like Russia, China, and Australia. So basically the whole sky is covered. And they have ppl watching the skies 24/7, 365 days a yr. No these events are growing in number and will continue to do so. More meteors could be right around the corner. I know more meteors will be sighted by ppl in the comings days and months. That's a giving. But when they start getting bigger and bigger and blowing up over cities then it can no longer be considered normal and just an occasional event. Yea I'll give you the fact that meteors are being better detected and documented until like I said they start getting bigger and exploding and slamming into the planet. For example, the other day is when I heard on fox news about the asteroid that was going to whiz by earth. But now its two. See how fast that changed? Just in a day and a half if that. I think we're going to see an increase in solar flares as well. Now I know solar flares happen everyday and are somewhat common. But they're not so common when they're huge and headed straight for earth. Now I may be wrong and I hope I am. I mean I'm not saying we're going to get slammed by an enormous asteroid or solar flare. For goodness sake I've got two small children I don't want anything bad to happen. I want to see my kids grow up too. All I'm saying is is that there will be an increase in these types of events. How they play out is uncertain cause nobody knows. I mean you here scientist say all the time "its not a matter of if it will happen but when". Welcome to the new normal of daily life I guess. I guess I can handle asteroids whizzing by earth wicked fast so long as they don't take earth with them.

Do people really want to know that an asteroid is going to destroy their city shortly before it does?

I find that somewhat disturbing.

The numbers aren't that out of synch with what I have noted in the past just the whole Russian incident has brought them to attention more

Originally posted by magma
Do people really want to know that an asteroid is going to destroy their city shortly before it does?

I find that somewhat disturbing.

If there was enough time to get out of the city before it hit I'd damn well want to know.

There's just too many asteroids whizzing towards earth. I mean if it was a common event in the past for an asteroid or asteroids to be hurtling towards our planet I'm sure they would've found those too right? They did have all these powerful telescopes back say 5, 10 yrs ago. And to my knowledge I can't recall this many asteroids zooming by all in the same yr or month at least in the past 5 yrs. And then you stack the meteor sightings and the meteor exploding over Russia on top of that and well its hard to label that as ordinary or a coincedence. Maybe I'm wrong maybe I'm not.

x-37b and likes should be out there checking them out and removing them from paths. Some fragments might make it through still and so then ground/sea/air based equipment's would be needed to further deteriorate before impacts.

I would venture to say since the Russian meteorite, we have more people looking up now, hence, the more we find. I think with this being "The Year of the Comets" we will probably see more, as these space bodies travel with companions it has picked up due to their gravity. There a few threads on here discussing these things.

But the more I hear about these things, I can't help to think of Billy Bob Thorton saying " These are the size of buses and Volkswagons." Well we know how the movie turned out. This will be an interesting year for sure.

Originally posted by cody599
It seems to me that earth is almost under attack at the moment

How do you know that it hasn't always been this way?


We have, after all, only just developed the technology that allows us to see what is really out there.

A bit like someone who has been blind from birth being cured, and exclaiming, "where did all these trees, buildings, clouds, and animals come from?!"... they were always there of course.