I saw a news story this morning that the near-earth asteroid designated 99942 Apophis may be on a collision course with Earth, coming in for a near miss in 2029, then possibly striking the planet in the year 2036. Here's my question: Why is this only making headlines now? I, personally, have known about this for over five years. The asteroid was first discovered to be a threat in 2004. Why did it take so long for news organizations to recognize this? I've noticed the same issue with other scientific stories. It seems to be a trend that journalists only find out about key developments in the scientific community once it's "old news." Personally, I find this to be unacceptable.
Also, a little over a week ago, I saw another story about a red supergiant star in the constellation Orion, known as Betelgeuse. The story stated that the star was at the end of its life and would soon go supernova. Appearanly, what the journalists didn't understand is that when astronomers talk about something happening "soon," they're talking about a time scale that stretches across billions of years. The journalists seem to have thought the astronomers meant that Betelgeuse would explode in a couple of years at most. This set the idiots of the world in a frenzy, reaffirming their insipid beliefs in a 2012 doomsday.
What wasn't mentioned is the fact that Betelgeuse is approximately 640 light years away. If the star exploded 640 years ago, the light from the supernova would only be reaching us now. This is not a problem, considering that we're seeing the star as it was 640 years ago. However, over such a distance, though it would make a spectacular light show, we on earth would notice nothing more than a bright light in the sky, about as bright as the full moon, which would slowly dim over a few months until nothing remains.
Granted, from a scientific perspective, this would be fascinating. We'd have the opportunity to witness the death of a star firsthand. Also, a star of Betelgeuse's size should be massive enough that, rather than a neutron star, like the remnant of the supernova observed by the Chinese on July 4, 1064, it will form a black hole. The opportunity to witness a massive star collapse into a black hole can potentially teach us things about the universe we cannot yet even fathom. Personally, I hope the light from Betelgeuse's explosion does reach us during my lifetime.
