It's artificial...and it's approaching Earth

Saw this article in The Daily Galaxy and it has since been picked up on other news sites.

Apparently, NASA has spotted an object on a trajectory towards Earth. Based on spectral characteristics, this is no meteor or asteroid and it has been demonstrating none of the other hallmarks of those types of space bodies. In fact, there are astronomers who have noted that it has actually changed direction a few times of its own accord. This lonely traveler has been designated a spacecraft...most likely the booster stage from one of our own deep space probes.

See how I did that?  I stole the motif of the linked article, deliberately bringing every geek reader to a heightened state of arousal, only to toss cold water into the proverbial groin with the more mundane truth.  Still, even if the tracked object is an ASC (Alternative SpaceCraft) as they are said to be called by those "in the know," do you think they'd tell us? I don't.

Which brings me to a related story on inbound astronomical bodies and authorities being less than candid. I've been reading that if an asteroid large enough to cause an Extinction Level Event is found to be headed towards Earth and cannot be stopped, the policy is simply to not tell the world.  This leaves me most ambivalent.

On the one hand, why live out our final days in panic?  And it most certainly would be. I do not relish the thought of wading through madness in the streets, fending off rapists and looters, and my family dying any sooner than they have to.  Why not live out our final days in blissful ignorance before the asteroid leaves nothing left alive except for bacteria?  Aside: I know that's not entirely accurate.  I know there are nearly 7 billion souls on this world and it would be difficult if not impossible to wipe us all out.  There would have to be stragglers.

Then again, would you want to prepare?  Try things you've never done before?  Spend as much time as you can with your loved ones?  Say things you've been meaning to say to people, even if it's just goodbye?  Go to church if you want?  Come to terms with the inevitable?  I even think it might be sickly humorous to watch cultists commit suicide (what, they can't wait?) or Glenn Beck-ers trying to stock their basements with food, gold, guns, and Bibles, thinking they can actually weather out the impact.  Oh what to choose?

So how about it, Strangers?  Is it better to know...or to not know?  For it may be a case where G.I. Joe is wrong and "knowing is not half the battle."

The photo is from NASA's JPL, found on Coast-to-Coast AM's site via George Knapp.


Follow me on Twitter: @Jntweets