Scientist and Media alike told the public
there was nothing to be concerned about Asteroid 2012 DA14. The media made sure there was no connection
to this event and the far-fetched idea that the Mayans could accurately
predicted the end of the world to happen in 2012; December 21st came
and went without incident. The facts were rebroadcast over the intervening
months; the asteroid was projected to pass by Earth at a distance of 17,500
miles; a comparison to six times the distance between New York and Los
Angeles. “The asteroid’s path is
understood well enough that there is no chance of a collision with the Earth”
reported NASA. That was accepted as gospel
~ until the unexpected occurred.
The
path of a recently launched North Korean Satellite had not been factored into the
formal risk assessment. Granted, the
asteroid pulverized the satellite, but what wasn’t considered was the slight
nudge the impact made; pushing the speeding rock closer to the Earth’s atmosphere;
six decimeters to be exact. Now in retrospect mathematicians argued that had they
known of that variable for their computations, then they too would have noticed
and alerted the necessary authorities that the change would put the asteroid into
an abrasive orbit with the planet; whose affect would be similar to a leaf slowly
swirling in a drain; friction pulling the mass further into the atmosphere,
which would then create more friction; that would then pull it even further
towards the planet and a sharper trajectory would necessarily happen due to
gravity. Before anyone could see such a possibility, the initial prediction was
no longer valid. The asteroid would enter into the upper atmosphere of the
earth triggering an irrepressible chain of physics. 
Nor
could they have predicted the asteroid composition was mostly a mixture of
heavy metals resulting in a resistance to burning up on entry into the planets
magnetic field and atmosphere; it actually performed in just the opposite way. Unlucky as all of that was, and what wasn’t
considered to any real degree of speculation, was DA14’s impact with Italy;
right at Messina; totally separating Sicily from the main peninsula. After that the horror would manifest in a resulting
Tsunami doing its work along the Tunisian and Libyan coast; along with washing Monaco
in Toto out to sea. Crete and Cyprus were completely submerged as were Majorca
and Minorca. All of the sea side cities and villages along Turkey, Lebanon and
Israel were totally devastated. The same fate arrived for pretty much all of
the Spanish and French coastal towns that shared the Mediterranean.
“How could we
have known?” would be such a poor response to such a cataclysmic event.
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