Postscript

I had forgotten to include in my previous post the bit of news that inspired the whole thing. Among the highway hazards that I noted was the latest:: Motorists in the county adjacent to mine (where my friend lives) spotted a meteor descending in that vicinity one morning last week. At 6:30 a.m, early morning commuters on their way to work saw it come within a few hundred yards of earth before it split into two pieces. The newspaper quoted a scientist as saying it was a meteor instead of a meteorite because a meteorite would have disintergrated when it entered the atmosphere. He said it was probably farther south than reported . No debris has been found thus far. The article said that an average of 2 meteors a day hit the earth (or oceans) and that 40,000 tons of space material is added to the planet Earth each year. My question: Who weighed it? I will never understand how these calculations are arrived at but I find them fascinating, none the less. My falling rocks hazard does not seem quite as bad as a meteor strike. I think I heard somewhere that the city of Middlesboro, Ky is the only city known to have been built around a crater left by a meteor. Must have been a big one. Something to ponder while looking skyward. I wonder if the tool kit abandoned by the space shuttle can be seen orbiting the earth with a good telescope. Did you know that the Hubbell telescope was engineered by a Kentucky scientist? Anyhow , a fellow Kentuckian told me that. I must do a little research on Snopes.com before I pass on these things. In the meantime, watch for falling rocks.