China space junk rocket worry fuels news loathing
An NBC News report by Alexander Smith offered this.
“It’s 10-stories tall and twice as heavy as a school bus, and it’s set to crash back to Earth this weekend — but no one is quite sure where or when.
“Scientists say the risk of it killing anyone after it reenters the planet’s atmosphere is small but not impossible.”
Chances of your Golden Retriever having a litter of kittens? Small but not impossible.
No rocket science degree necessary for understanding how fear works in news reporting.
Scientists say minimal risk exists that the 98-foot-long, 20-ton section of China’s Long March 5B rocket, tumbling out of control at 18,000 miles per hour, poses any serious threat to Earthlings. Mr. Smith please.
“There is a tiny chance the debris could hit New York, Los Angeles, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro, the Nigerian capital of Abuja or Beijing. It will more likely land in an ocean or the wilderness.”
Not planning on being in either aforementioned destination although have paid for season beach tags for Asbury Park.
So why the bother? Some news cycles offer (Slim Pickens) which means pushing stories that heighten phobias and expand our strange love for concern. It’s better to stop worrying and hate the news.
Many national news outlets served this Chicken Little China rocket story as if planet dwellers don’t already have a full plate of life circumstances. Even with an extra month to file taxes and a heady accountant ready for a T.J. “King” Kong ride through tax codes, still managed to delay the filing.
In reality, this China rocket return represents a minor blip in space exploration, although several incidents have occurred when debris landed in inhabited locales.
Elizabeth Howell (on Twitter @ howellspace. Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook) posted a Friday article that headlined:
“A huge Chinese rocket booster is falling from space, but don’t worry. It likely won’t hit you.”
In an interview with Space. com’s Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the HarvardSmithsonian Center for Astrophysics, noted the typical risk of an individual being hit is “one in many billions.”
Howell recalled a “Soviet Kosmos 954 nuclear satellite that spewed radiation-laden pieces across the Canadian Arctic in 1977 and the NASA Skylab space station’s uncontrolled atmosphere plummet in 1979 when some pieces slammed into Australia, luckily with no casualties.”
“The first time for a rocket of this type was a year ago, and the core stage re-entered over Africa,” McDowell told Space.com.
“These 10-meter [30-foot] long metal rods slammed into the roofs of people’s houses. So the fact that happened, [the] first time out, tells you that the risk of property damage — at least — is not tiny, because it happened. We were lucky that there were no casualties.”
Howell and McDowell did perk interests about space and expanded personal knowledge about space junk.
About 2,000 active satellites orbit Earth at the moment, as well as 3,000 dead ones littering space. Around 34,000 pieces of space junk bigger than 10 centimetres in size pollute skies above.
Sadly, this American supersized propaganda news hysteria will exacerbate anti-Asian sentiments.