Military Hush-Up: Incoming Space Rocks Now Classified

Source: SPACE.com

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.

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"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.

Read more: http://www.space.com/news/090610-military-fireballs.html

Mayan calendar ends and they knew the world would end the day before my 50th birthday!!!!:tinfoilhat: :sarcasm:

I love that.:yourock:

Happy 50th - have a great year....If we still can.

Just getting one in while it's still possible.

mark

For that reason it is weird.

But here is the funny thing, why would they classify "natural fireball events in Earth's atmosphere"

When everyone can see them. Duh! That's funny.

Now previously(or is it future) discussed dramatic explosions in the sky (Apophis ships destroyed by SG1) will now not be discussed as incoming space rocks.

That takes more then balls, it takes spaceballs, But that show is a comedy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXKOsajNZY4

:rofl:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tY-3kVIc1F8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovLS9mEA7IM

Edit: Ok got to add just one more
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PdY3L-JYzk

Edit2: Yea I know it was a miss on rotting corpse... (Incorruptibility and all), but it still is funny.

Satellite tracking has been key to finding impact sites before they cool enough to allow extensive terrestrial contamination. They just made a difficult emerging field a lot more difficult.

to keep alien visitors secret

That seems to be a bit nasty ... I mean, people should be warned when they're abo

...well played.

:rofl:

if there was to be a imminent cataclysmic threat from an asteroid or comet, what should they do about telling all the rest of us. They actually voted NOT TO TELL us, because of the panic and destruction it could cause on earth and hey... what if they were wrong about it and it missed us? Ooops!
Then they'd be responsible for all that panic and destruction of social systems and religious whatnot.
2012 you say?
I'd better go on vacation soon.

No, the military is NOT looking for the incoming ones (at least since LINEAR tanked). Their sensors look down looking for nukes exploding on the surface and they see the ones that do hit us (which happens all the time, BTW.

It's annoying to scientists because we use the fireball data as an extra data point in determining the size distribution of these objects. So, no deep dark conspiracy here to prevent the end of the world.

Finally, the classification action took place "months" ago. Probably more Bush era secrecy for secrecy's sake. I would figure that changes quickly.

Ahhhhh. Now this thread is making sense.

and Ben Affleck up there??? I must know!

our atmosphere is of earth*y origin.

but they probably don't want to expose the capabilities or orbits of their surveillance equipment.

"They" can probably see me from space, digging weeds in the garden. But when I wipe my brow, can they photograph my fingertips and do a fingerprint match? I don't know, and I don't think the NSA or Department of Defense wants me to know.

Just a guess.

:hi:

I've watched enough sci-fi to know that this probably won't end well. ;-)

Finally, all those years of work playing Halo will pay off

As more and more countries unfriendly to the United States achieve missile capabilities, could they be worried about these satellites being shot down? During the Cold War shooting down the other side's satellites would have been a logical prelude to a first strike. The risk of that presumption prevented either side from doing so.

But I can definitely see North Korea deciding to shoot down the satellite that has been spying on their missile tests. It would not provoke a nuclear launch. And not much we could really do in response.

Invasion? Not worth it. Besides, we were using the satellite to spy on them. I'm pretty sure the entire world would consider shooting down a spy satellite justified.

Sanctions? They refuse free food when their people are starving! So what meaningful sanctions could we bring to bear on them (aside from Hollywood movies)?

atmosphere,or when Jupiter starts to ignite into a star oh gods:tinfoilhat: :popcorn: