A timely warning !

It has been labelled as a " once in a hundred years event ! "    A meteor about fifteen metres in diameter entered earth's atmosphere and exploded with the force of about 300,000 tonnes of TNT over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk.    The sonic boom was devastating, smashing windows and toppling walls, and slashing people with broken glass. Many thought this was a nuclear explosion.

 Just suppose that this visitor from outer space had chosen October 1962 to happen - right in the middle of the Cuban missile crisis - when JFK and Nikita Krushchev had their forces on hair trigger alert and were facing down the prospect of World War Three.   It could easily have been mistaken for a " first strike " and triggered a nuclear exchange.

Fortunately, just such a prospect had led to the installation of the celebrated " hot line " between Washington and Moscow.    It was thought that the ability of world leaders to speak directly to each other in a crisis would lessen the chance of mistaken information leading to someone pressing " the Doomsday button " - and laying waste to civilization as we know it.

Things have settled down between these two adversaries.  The nuclear missile defences are no longer aimed at each country's cities, but there are other hot spots in the world that could react to a similar visit by a meteor .   Suppose the site of such an explosion was above Tel Aviv or Pyongyang ?   Regimes that are tuned to expect a first strike by avowed enemies could be expected to react swiftly.- and forcibly !

We search the skies for incoming space rocks but ones the size of the meteor that caused the problem in Chelyabinsk are too small to be detected.   The world will have to learn to live with the expectation that such an event can occur at any time - at any point on planet Earth.

Hopefully, those regimes under constant alert pressure may at least take such an explanation into consideration before they respond to an unexpected event.in their skies.   The future of the human race may depend on them making the right decision !