For 15 years, scientists have benefited from data gleaned by U.S. classified satellites of natural fireball events in Earth’s atmosphere – but no longer.
A recent U.S. military policy decision now explicitly states that observations by hush-hush government spacecraft of incoming bolides and fireballs are classified secret and are not to be released, SPACE.com has learned. The satellites’ main objectives include detecting nuclear bomb tests, and their characterizations of asteroids and lesser meteoroids as they crash through the atmosphere has been a byproduct data bonanza for scientists.
The upshot: Space rocks that explode in the atmosphere are now classified.
“It’s baffling to us why this would suddenly change,” said one scientist familiar with the work. “It’s unfortunate because there was this great synergy…a very good cooperative arrangement. Systems were put into dual-use mode where a lot of science was getting done that couldn’t be done any other way. It’s a regrettable change in policy.” Scientists say not only will research into the threat from space be hampered, but public understanding of sometimes dramatic sky explosions will be diminished, perhaps leading to hype and fear of the unknown. Most “shooting stars” are caused by natural space debris no larger than peas. But routinely, rocks as big as basketballs and even small cars crash into the atmosphere. Most vaporize or explode on the way in, but some reach the surface or explode above the surface. Understandably, scientists want to know about these events so they can better predict the risk here on Earth.
Yet because the world is two-thirds ocean, most incoming objects aren’t visible to observers on the ground. Many other incoming space rocks go unnoticed because daylight drowns them out.
Over the last decade or so, hundreds of these events have been spotted by the classified satellites. Priceless observational information derived from the spacecraft were made quickly available, giving researchers such insights as time, a location, height above the surface, as well as light-curves to help pin down the amount of energy churned out from the fireballs. But all that ended within the last few months, leaving scientists blind-sided and miffed by the shift in policy. The hope is that the policy decision will be revisited and overturned. “These data have been available to the scientific community for the past decade,” he said. “It is unfortunate this information is shut off just when it is becoming more valuable to the community interested in characterizing near Earth asteroids and protecting our planet from asteroid impacts.”
The newly issued policy edict by the U.S. military of reporting fireball observations from satellites also caught the attention of Clark Chapman, a planetary scientist and asteroid impact expert at Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado.
“I think that this information is very important to make public,” Chapman told SPACE.com.
Just another bizarre incident as our government becomes increasingly more “transparent”.
What is it that they don’t want the people to know about incoming fireballs? Will there be an increase?
“Just another bizarre incident as our government becomes increasingly more “transparent”. ”
Transparent like a one-way window.
Is this an example of Obama’s new “Transparency” in government.
Unless this has an impact on cataloging and tracking Near Earth Objects, no problem. However if it does that could spell disaster. Maybe they know something we don’t? Normally the military suffers frrom a huge inertia and policy is not changed without powerful motives, this scares me a little. So much appocalyptic talk, now this.
I read a book once about world powers positioning asteroids so they would fall and hit the earth in predetermined locations so that it would look like a natural event yet be like dropping a nuke where ever it hit
Wonder if they’re having issues with the Satellites and this will keep people from finding out. Or someone got promoted who doesn’t think we should be giving it out in the first place.
“The upshot: Space rocks that explode in the atmosphere are now classified.”
Umm, no.
what do you want to bet that this silliness will be reversed when someone realizes the unforseen consequences but of course that reversal will not get any press. Only fear mongering items seem to make news these days.
unfortunately, it won’t be reversed. the really bad part in this is…it’s like really bad publicity for (what I expect to be) a really bad movie: 2012. Y’all have seen the commercials, right? “how would the world’s governments prepare you for the end of the world?” “They wouldn’t”
and hiding information about things which are hyped as global catastrophic events is a fine way to add to the hysteria
,
I guess the scientist demographic group didn’t contribute enough to the voodoo campaign.
Sad, some of the security people want to make how many times their dog passed wind a national security issue. A complete waste of resources.
Good move. The US military should keep their capabilities secret. Perhaps Hu Jintao can give the scientists access to the Chinese spy satellites?…
It’s interesting to see how right-wingers whine about this. Isn’t national security dear to your hearts?
lol.. people here are so brainwashed…
i guess the UFO’s buzzing around the shuttle in the last mission (STS-125) must have told NASA “you ain’t seen nothing yet”
i’d bet my left nut this has very little to do with space rocks and a whole lot todo with the large increase in UFO sightings the past 6-7 months..
have you noticed that in the past few years, almost all the great nations of our planet have started coming clean and not only admitted, but actuallly made available to their peoples, thousand of previously denied and classified UFO documents and encounters..
hell, even Russia has opened it’s doors on the matter. add to that, Kazakhstan is actually building a purpose built UFO landing pad and Alien embassy. (!)
meanwhile, here in America, in the land of Liberty (well, not any more, but..) and TV watching, mind-numbed automatons, we still maintain the farce that “Nope, no such thing as UFO’s..never seen’em..what?, you say we have back engineered delta shaped space craft..?? -har har, -quick, get this man a straight jacket before he hurts someone…”
it’s really sad lately that America, the supposed champion of Liberty, free speech and the open exchange of ideas, (and unfortunately, religion) has become the corrupted, fear mongering, introverted, paranoid poster child of everything our founders fought against to create this great country.
-No, this has nothing to do with space rocks, and everything to do with what the increasing side effects our solar system is experiencing as it passes through the center of the Milky Way’s “electromagnetic ribbon”
They blocked access to the birds so they can spin the coming fun into horror, tragedy and profit. (both political and monetary)
Eyes Wide Open people. -don’t be fooled. Great new (old) discoveries ahead this summer and fall.
-s
#13 – soundwash
🙄
And there are a couple dozen outfits chartered to do exactly this kind of research who aren’t whining that they’re cut out of the loop.
Maybe we’re just dealing with a journalist who was shut out of a press conference.?
Open in new window
More likely, this is about re-entry characteristics of nuclear missile warheads than anything else. If you can figure what a rock will do and share it openly, obviously you could do the same with man-made objects — and considering that Korea and Iran are scrounging for info on a daily basis, best to classify the scientific research.
BTW, why is the text scrolling on the right again, with what appears to be misplaced punctuation?
Ah. Who cares? All my life I have not known about any damn rocks, so why should I give a crap now? Except that a some kid just got hit in the hand by a pea sized meteorite.
John, please fix your Reply window.. It’s ahrd to gype this way.
–About the right justified text box issue.
Hey people, until JCD fixes the text box, do what i have always done.
-open your favorite text editor (Or notepad) and write your post in there. when finished, just copy and paste it into the text box.
it has a side benefit of preventing you from losing your post should something gets FUBARed in the browser when you hit the submit button.
(dont forget to name the file and save it first. -esp if you have wonky power or a cat that likes to flip the power switch – hit CTRL-S often [to write it
disk)
-s
Ya know, if one of the smaller rocks, (say, the size of a car, were to hit Washington DC when Congress was in session, and when BO was home, things just might look up in this country.
#20 – soundwash
This is yet another one of these “Little green men on Mars” and “Mars face” theories.
The “appearing/disappearing” dots of light are small particles drifting out of the shadow of the spacecraft, or back into it.
As the lens zooms tele, many of these UFOs blur out into discs–exactly what you get when nearby dust motes show as circles in flash shots.
Want to shoot some yourself? Zoom your pocket camera wide and shoot a night picture of the sky with flash. Then pound a pillow near the camera (still air needed for this) and shoot a second shot.
Whu… whut are them UFO circles, Mr. Science?
Well Bobby, let’s just say they ain’t Martians.
I doubt this has anything to do with Obama and more to do with the surviving neocon types left in the military. Really, all military promotions done over the last 8 years should be reviewed, along with demotions and retirements with an eye toward reversing everyone of those decisions since Shrub and co. tried their very best to corrupt the military any way they could. This is just one of the side effects.
Another issue along these lines is the ultra-conservative religious stuff pushed on many of the new officers and rank and file recruits into the military. It’s not only illegal but truly a violation of the constitution that this continues to go on anyway. The only way I see to get rid of it is to review and renig on as many of the decisions that were made since Shrub took over (notice I do not say won) back in 2000. of course, this won’t be easy but it is necessary.
This could well be a matter of fearing that people could figure out the orbits of the satellites used. If there are not enough to cover all the locations of interest all the time, it might be useful to someone who wants to set off a nuclear test to know when the nuclear explosion sensing satellites are in view and when they are not…
#24 – Uncle Patso – …be useful to someone who wants to set off a nuclear test to know when the nuclear explosion sensing satellites are in view and when they are not…
Nuclear tests are revealed by seismologic stations.
I think its because these devices are LOW tech. And how many have been hacked over the years..
Monkey’s paw all over again. Careful what you Wish for…. Change Change Change
#21 – have no interest in green men or martians. just seeing some interesting patterns emerge over the past few months.
#22 – yes yes, i am aware of that tired yet convenient explanation. i’ve even managed to reproduce a similar effect first hand on some older equipment
when i was exploring the claim. that explanation rates right up there with “those are just ice crystals – case closed”
however… in the sts-75 vid, -what is producing your “shadow”? -i don’t think they are using flash for video. These “nearby dust motes” are most all passing behind the tether which is tens of kilometers away and itself, some 12 miles long.
the effect you speak of obviously exists, but does not explain with 100% certainty as to what is going here.
ever watch sts-48, 80, 115, 118 or or, practically all of ’em? they all have “artifacts” (happy?) -that go beyond what you would call “dust behavour”
i have also found similar shaped objects in night shots of the moon, -that i take often. (no flash obviously)
oddly, i only discovered them after raising the gamma on the pics. cant see ’em otherwise. -and they have a reflection on the water below..pretty cool dust motes, ya?
-lastly..i’ve never had a problem accepting there may be life other than us out there.
last summer while wandering along the river by the throggs neck bridge, i ran across a few folks “star gazing” with starlight goggles and a modified mirror telescope.
do yourself a favour, get some or find someone with the gear and spend a night or two looking in the sky.
once you see all the “crap” flying around in the night sky in the infrared, you’ll have a whole new view and respect for the world at large.
to really bring it home, look with one eye naked and the other in the scope at the same time.
it will force you to take another look at sciences you were taught. tbh, it took me a week or so to accept the ramifications..
-and trust me..it’s not dust motes flying around either.
-s
#28 – soundwash
Seriously… if these were giant UFOs… wouldn’t the astronauts have shit their pants?
#29 – not in the least. -this would be standard briefing for NASA Astronauts.
..just in recent history..
think about it..we have simple, overwhelming photographic evidence of UFO’s during WWII -known as Foo Fighters to the bomber squadrons and fighter/fighter support squadrons in the Pacific and European theaters.
-we have Roswell in 1947..at first admitted by the air force, then suddenly, it turned into a weather balloon.
or even better, The Battle of LA (1942)
we’ve had UFO’s visiting us for a very long time.
– In NASA, especially the past 5-7 years or so, quite a few former shuttle and apollo pilots (not to mention many ex-military) have gone record about encounters, the cover ups, aliens that look just like us.
the amount of very well known, (and decorated) educated, engineers, pilots, and physicists that have been going record lately is astounding.
while some *may be* PsyOp types with planted stories, the most common thread amongst all of them indicate that this has been going for a very long time.
so given that constant, once your in a position (in NASA) such that your job detail means you will be exposed to lets say, “unexplainable data” in the near future, it would be naturally prudent that you be briefed on it so you don’t freeze or spit your coffee on the
console during a crucial moment.
given the regularity at which UFO’s show up in STS Mission footage, no doubt this is nothing new. -hence no shitting of the pants required. though i’m sure it’s un-nerving regardless of how many times you may have seen a UFO wandering around your shuttle.
seriously, think about it. it’s a non-issue if your in the industry.
for, me..i’m easy..i just hope i get to go for ride around at least the solar system, if not the galaxy, before i die.
-s
This has to do with the black world program to use the smaller Near Earth Objects as weapons. As the ability to detect sizes below those which would cause international problems evolve, so too does the feasibility of using those smaller objects as weapons. Low radar and infrared signature (stealth) probes would be sent to the selected asteroid to slowly nudge it into an impact trajectory with an enemy target, let’s say an underground U235 enrichment facility in, oh, I don’t know, Iran. The impact would be an “oops” event that would seem to be an act of “god.” The classification of meteor data is simply an attempt to hide their practice shots.
Or not… 😉