The Gaurdian reports that Australia's comet-spotting program lost funding and shut down last year,
The Earth has been left with a huge blind spot for potentially devastating comet strikes after the only dedicated comet-spotting program in the southern hemisphere lost its funding, leading astronomers have warned.
The program, which discovered the Siding Spring comet, was shut down last year after losing funding.
“It’s a real worry,” Bradley Tucker, an astronomer at the Australian National University (ANU) and University of California Berkeley, told Guardian Australia.
“There could be something hurtling towards us right now and we wouldn’t know about it.”
The Siding Spring survey – named after the observatory near Coonabarabran in central New South Wales, where the Mars comet was first spotted – was the only program in the southern hemisphere actively searching for potentially hazardous comets, asteroids and meteors.
It seems that the Gaurdian is running this story now because the program had previously spotted a comet that came close to Mars on Sunday, but this is the first I remember hearing about it.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday October 24 2014, @11:48PM
Well, either Australia has critical needs for what's left of their science funding, and didn't want to invest in a needed Siding Spring update, or it's related to other Abbott priorities [theguardian.com]
(Score: 1) by cngn on Saturday October 25 2014, @12:53AM
Well, The idiots who voted the Aussie version of the Republican retards from the US are getting what they wanted, stupid tax policies that make the rich richer, the poor poorer.
A loss of civil freedom with the new laws passed regarding privacy being severely curbed, even press freedom has taken a hit with a new law that can put a journalist in jail for 10 years if they report on anything security related, even though what is 'security relayed' isn't specified in the law.
Well isn't there an old saying that 'a people deserve the goverment they vote in' guess we asked for it.....
(Score: 2) by NoMaster on Saturday October 25 2014, @02:51AM
That's OK - like squirrels and hedgehogs, we don't have journalists in Australia; just things that look sort of like them to the untrained eye.
(There may possibly - like the Thylacine in Tasmania - be a few still living hidden in the depths of the ABC. But, like the Tassie Tiger before them, their time is fast running out...)
Live free or fuck off and take your naïve Libertarian fantasies with you...
(Score: 2) by clone141166 on Saturday October 25 2014, @06:52AM
Not entirely disagreeing, but thanks to the running joke that is the two party political system; was the only alternative really any better?
That ASIO security/snooping law that passed recently was voted through *unanimously* by both of the major parties...
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Saturday October 25 2014, @09:26AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 25 2014, @02:33AM
I must admit that I am of two minds on this story. As an astronomer I find it deplorable that funding was cut for this research project; even though I am not intimately connected with this project I am certain that it was providing early warning on comets making a close approach to the inner solar system. Intense study and scrutiny of these comets as they fly by provides us with data about solar system origins which we just can't get any other way and any early warning we can get so as to be prepared for their quick appearance is important. On the other hand, I find the suggestion that this is "a real worry" for all of humanity, as if we might be oblivious to a doomsday comet headed our way, just slightly over the top. The threat of that is minimal as can be appreciated from the fact that we as a species have managed to survive and thrive on this planet for tens of thousands of years without a dedicated comet-spotting program in the southern hemisphere. The unvarnished truth is that the real worry is for those who just got their funding cut. The other real worry is that we have our priorities messed up when the little bit of funding we do put toward basic science is cut in favour of other costly government boondoggles. That is the real worry.
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Saturday October 25 2014, @05:26PM
>we as a species have managed to survive and thrive on this planet for tens of thousands of years without a dedicated comet-spotting program in the southern hemisphere
Uh, tens of thousands of years is nothing. In Earth's short lifetime, the planet has already experienced several catastrophic meteoric encounters, one of which made the Moon, and one of which caused the dinosaurs to go extinct (the "old humans", if you will). It's not impossible that tens or hundred of years later another one hits, wiping out Homo sapiens, and for the future dominant species of Earth to look back at us "naked monkeys" as a scientific curiosity.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 25 2014, @07:42PM
Your sense of proportion is way out of whack. You are MUCH more likely to die in a plane crash than to die from a catastrophic collision of Earth with a comet/meteor. You are even more likely still to get killed by a bus as you cross the street later today.
(Score: 2) by redneckmother on Saturday October 25 2014, @02:48AM
"Ah, Fuck 'em, they're in the Southern hemisphere. A comet strike down under won't hurt all of us Northerners!"
Just a joke - please don't flame me. I have the utmost respect for Aussies (as my Uncle who served in the Pacific in WWII called them).
Mas cerveza por favor.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Saturday October 25 2014, @09:30AM
A doom-bearing announcement of "we're all fucked, there's a million tons of rock heading straight towards us" doesn't actually help us in any tangible way at all.
And an announcement of "we're not fucked, a million tons of rock isn't going to hit us" doesn't help us either.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday October 25 2014, @03:32AM
Tempest/Teapot.
Given the the fact that most of the short period comets tend to be relatively close to the plane of the ecliptic, most of those will be spotted without a southern facing facility.
The diameter of the earth's orbit around the sun and the earth's inclination, means many of the more southerly approaching comets can be spotted from equatorial locations at some times of the year.
Given the number of comet strikes from southern approaching comets in recorded history, *cough* and the short duration that there has been any coverage at all, this seems pretty much a non issue. It seems to me this would be a job better handled by a satellite.
In fact every object they mention in the story including Sliding Spring would have been spotted by any other installation, although perhaps later. Further they went on to claim that comet sliding spring would never have been seen by any other installation, which is simply not true.
There's precious little we could do about comet anyway. Yeah, Nukes. Most people don't expect that to work too wall anyway. But some people need an excuse to rant and change everything into a political issue.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 25 2014, @07:32PM
While true, it should mentioned that long period comets are actually the most interesting.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday October 25 2014, @07:48PM
But even a substantial majority of those are near the plane of the ecliptic.
True, the ones that aren't near the plane gain a certain level of interest simply because the tend to come out of "nowhere", but their crossing angle makes direct hits of a planet less likely.
A "following" comet in the plane of the ecliptic has planets in the cross-hairs, so to speak, for a much longer time.
Comets aren't our biggest worry in any case. The rock out of nowhere has a much greater damage potential. We've got no believable plan to handle those either.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.