I was a little disappointed to see an article in the Daily which suggested that media-hype takes away from the significance of an issue, in this case asteroids hitting the earth. Long before NBC jumped on the disaster-movie bandwagon with a miniseries about a collision with asteroids, the United Nations recognized the significance of the problem. The UN’s Office of Outer Space Affairs has considered this problem, knowing that a significant impact of an asteroid with the earth affects more than the citizens in the neighborhood of its impact. It will affect the entire world.

Anyone who has stumped for better protection of the environment or control of the national debt on behalf of our grandchildren should also consider the potential for an asteroid impact with the earth. Although, as your staff writer pointed out, we are a very little ball in a very large universe, and there are a lot of things zooming around in the universe. Sixty million years ago an asteroid caused the extinction of the dinosaurs, in 1984 the earth was buzzed by asteroid FC1984, an object whose collision with Earth would have put Mt. St. Helen to shame, and we watched news footage not too long ago of a barrage of astronomical objects pelting Jupiter.

There should be no doomsday predictions extracted from this letter. Rather, an attempt at educating the population of this Research One university of science and technology. Consider it inevitable that the earth will again be hit by an asteroid capable of destroying the human race. This may happen while you read today’s Daily or in 20 million years. It is the consequences of a large asteroid impact with the earth which should cause us concern. Our positions at this university establish our duty to consider how to remedy this concern for future generations.

Samuel Reno

Senior in Industrial Technology