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Should we need to sleep wearing a helmet, in the basement?

Francisco Miraval

Just a few days ago, asteroid 2012DA14 came close to earth. At the same time, but unrelated –so they say– a meteorite exploded over a city in Russia and meteorites were also seen over California and Cuba. So, I am thinking that perhaps I should sleep in the basement of my house, wearing a helmet and, if possible, hiding under the mattress. (It is not going to help, of course.)

Seriously, what is happening? The simplest explanation is that nothing out of the ordinary is happening. The only difference is that now we have, thanks to progress in science and technology, better chances of detecting meteorites and asteroids. At the same time, thanks to the media, stories are shared almost immediately and almost instantly those stories become global.

There is, of course, another possibility. Perhaps the novel Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein (later, in 1997, turned into a movie with the same name) and the 2004 episode Battle over Antarctica of the TV series Stargate SG1 are more than just science fiction works, providing information about asteroids used as weapon and about interplanetary battles masquerading as explosions of meteorites.

In other words, either nothing abnormal is happening, or normal (or abnormal) things are so strange that is better not to know what is really happening. Perhaps, in addition to a helmet, a basement, and a mattress, I also need a Teddy bear to hug at night. And perhaps it will be better to leave the lights on during the night.

Regardless, I am still inclined to accept the first option. It has been said, for example, that it is not the case that there are more natural disasters, such as earthquakes, now than in the past. What is happening is that, thanks to modern communications, now we learn about more earthquakes that previously would have remained unreported.

It is also said, for example, that the fascination of our time with mysteries and with the supernatural is not different from what happened in previous times. The only difference is that now we have more channels and resources to share and distribute our questions.

However, it is difficult to keep a rational and calmed approach when you can actually see the consequences of the explosion of the meteorite over Russia -even if you are watching it from the comfort of your favorite sofa at home-, especially when you remember how, in the remote past, meteorites cause massive extinctions on earth.

In addition, according to the experts, there is no connection between asteroid 2012DA14 and the meteorite that exploded over Russia.  However, experts are known for being wrong in the past, when they said that the earth was flat or that nothing heavier than earth could fly. And if there is really nothing to worry about, why, during the last couple of years, NASA’s budget for the detection of Near Earth Objects (NEOs) grew 300 percent?

I promise this is the last time I read science fiction before writing the weekly commentary.

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