"It is probably a good idea to search, at some level, for asteroids that come to the Earth's general vicinity. But merely counting the asteroids found is not sufficient. It is desirable to follow up each discovery to examine whether it can or can not be a threat during the next century or so. Objects for which the threat cannot be eliminated should be singled out for special study, notably to the extent of searching for old images in photographic archives. 1997 XF11 was noteworthy for the apathy shown to it prior to the very widespead announcement in March. If proper attention had been given to it earlier, the circumstances that led to the announcement would never have occurred. Sometimes statistics will conspire to draw attention to a problem. Maybe they are trying to tell us something."
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Astronomers from EnglandUniversity of Oxford alumniPeople from CambridgeYale University alumniHarvard University staff
Original Language: English
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"1997 XF11 – the true story" in The Journal of the British Astronomical Association Vol. 109, No.1 (February 1999).
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Brian_G._Marsden
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Brian G. Marsden
Brian Geoffrey Marsden (5 August 1937 – 18 November 2010) was a British astronomer, director of the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams from 1968 to 1999, and director of the Minor Planet Center at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 1978–2006.
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