No Golf Channel!!

The problem isn't that scientists would panic — they are the least likely group to do that, and the most likely to check the "facts" given in the original article and then vociferously complain about the lack of such facts. The problem is the lay public, who, for lack of serious scientific training, might very well panic — or, after enough hoaxes, might figure whoever it is is crying wolf, and ignore *real* dangers when these are reported. The scientific community is *not* the only human group in the world, and it is everyone else, billions of people, whose reactions to things like this help determine how they vote and where they want their tax money — and, potentially, scientific grant money, or lack of it — invested.

Nasa on the other hand is heading back to the moon just after their probe checks out Pluto on it's way to the Oort cloud. And if things go smoothly, we'll have another probe on Mars very soon as well.

2029 is still more than 20 years away, so I can't imagine anyone reading the incorrect story would have irrationally panicked about the end of the world.

*shrug* just my two cents I guess

An object with an estimated mass of 4.6×1010 kg and travelling around 30,000km an hour hitting the ocean will do more than burn up a significant amount of water. It will bore all the way through to the bottom and creat a large crater. That's where the massive amount of dust comes from.

Dana

I am always more prone to trust what i read (specialy in Universe Today) than to question everything.

Fraser is doing a very good job.

Keep it up.

Nuno

From time to time inacuracies occur and thus disagreeing calculations, it's the way that the issue was handled that was wrong.

Nowadays the means of comunication can avoid these kind of public messes, it's a matter of will… and being serious.

Nuno G

I trust Fraser and the team to make the editorial judgements in these cases – and I think they do a pretty good job 99.9% of the time.

It's not like I'm paying for these news stories, but they certainly keep me informed and entertained during my coffee break.

Good work guys

1. It all starts with a kind of prejudice called anti-Americanism.

2. A simple equation was applied: NASA = USA.

3. This Anti-Americanism implies that American institutions are liars.

4. And to an adept the above point #3 is so obvious that even a child can see it.

5. So the conclusion follows that the 13 year old child is right and therefore the "free" German press is commited to publish this without any further investigation.

The free press is an assembly line for such bad behaviour. On April, 10th the German TV channel ARD broadcasted a story on drug addicts. But the interviews were faked by the interviewed person which afterwards identified himself as member of a group called "Kommando Tito von Hardenberg". This case also made it obvious for all and everybody how rotten the media really are. The last severe case that happened in Germany a view month ago is analyzed in the book "Der Fall Eva Herman. Hexenjagd in den Medien" by Arne Hoffmann. But worse, even if caught, the campaign makers stick togehter and hold their sight of the world up against reality as long as even possible. Like conspirators.

While in the past the "BILD" newspaper was the embodiment of an intentionally lying and cheating right press, meanwhile the majority of the personal of the media considers itself as left-winged. So the victim of the "free" press are still the same: the truth and the public. Only the intentions have changed a little bit.

I would recommend to obligate everyone who starts working for the press or any other media to take part in an at least one year training in Karl Popper's method of critical rationalism.

Recommendation : "Flat Earth News: An Award-winning Reporter Exposes Falsehood, Distortion and Propaganda in the Global Media" by Nick Davis.

That would be cool!

We're doing the best job that we can with the resources we have. Obviously, in hindsight, it would have been best to call NASA, verify the story, and scoop the wires with a good dose of skepticism and reality. Trust me, Nancy's BS detector got ratcheted up today. But I'm going to keep on trusting the team to follow their instincts on stories and hone their skills. And if UT's reputation needs to take a beating during that process, so be it.

We made a mistake, got caught up in the hoopla, and we worked quickly to fix it and remain transparent with the readers. And it all happened autonomously by a responsible writer maintaining her journalistic integrity.

I did that yesterday, the number was the old, low, one, so I sent one e-mail to the NEO Office, and within an hour or so I had Don Yeomans' statement. The only reason I didn't post it yesterday was that … I just couldn't imagine in my wildest dreams that some %$$$%$ international news agency would pick up a story from a local German paper and broadcast it to the world without checking anything about its veracity.

@ Fraser, you are in the task group for the IYA Portal to the Universe (as am I): Don't today's events make it obvious that considerable editorial oversight is necessary to run such a system and that you cannot rely on it working autonomously as was once hoped?

By the way, a brief NASA statement – from Headquarters! – is now out …

An object travelling around 30,000km an hour hitting the ocean will burn up a significant amount of water, but in that time, at that speed, the meteor breaks up as well.

Consider it like human jumping without a parachute. If he hits concrete, he goes splat, and at terminal velocity hitting water, you get a splat like concrete with a bit more give. Im not sure on the calcs of all this, but there is enough force being an impact to boil the water, which will in turn eject dust from the meteorite into the atmosphere.

And about the event at the 7th of march 2008:

http://bildungsklick.de/pm/58947/73-schuelerinnen-und-schueler-erfolgreich-bei-den-regionalwettbewerben-jugend-forscht/

http://www.pnn.de/Pubs/potsdam/pageviewer.asp?TextID=16107

"Bei seinen Berechnungen kam er auf eine Einschlagswahrscheinlichkeit von eins zu 450 und die NASA ließ der Europäischen Raumfahrt-Agentur ESA ausrichten, der Junge aus Potsdam habe recht."

I'm not so sure about my translation, but it's something like:
His calculations resulted in a probability of 1 to 450 and the NASA let the ESA report, that the boy from Potsdam were right.

Another reference to the 'Regionalausscheid' "Jugend forscht":
http://archiv.tagesspiegel.de/archiv/08.03.2008/3893958.pnn