Asteroid Impact could start a World War 3

Ukrainian officials say the "strong flash" reported by the pilot of an Israeli plane over Ukraine on Thursday was probably caused by a meteor entering the atmosphere. In a statement on Saturday, the Ukrainian defense ministry said no missiles had been fired in the area at the time. The pilot had reported seeing what he believed to have been a missile exploding in mid-air at a distance from his aircraft.

There is an increasing amount of information being released from both mainstream science as well as the media concerning potential threats to earth form an inbound asteroid. Several of these Near Earth objects have gotten media attention in recent yeas such as 1997xf11 and it's possible close pass with Earth in 2028. (see below)

In more recent times, the asteroid, dubbed 2002 NT7, is traveling at 28 kilometers per second and there is a chance, initial calculations indicate, that it could hit our planet on February 1, 2019. Astronomers believe the asteroid, discovered through the Linear Observatory's automated sky survey programme in New Mexico in the U.S. on July 5, could be the most threatening object yet detected in space. Even lesser rocks such as 2002 EM7 could do serious damage by plunging into the ocean and unleashing monster tsunamis on coastal cities, according to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 2002 EM7 could smack into Earth in 2093.

The media and the entertainment industry have been playing very heavily off this information in movies such as "Deep Impact" and Armageddon". It seems the public is being shown more and more information surrounding the idea of a possible outside threat. Are we being desensitize for events that could happen in our future?

Links to Asteroid information -

http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/space/08/05/asteroid.encounter/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/space/07/24/asteroid.nt7/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/space/06/20/asteroid.miss/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/space/01/16/asteroid.pair/index.html

http://www.msnbc.com/news/177595.asp
http://www.msnbc.com/news/731261.asp
http://www.msnbc.com/news/770760.asp
http://www.msnbc.com/news/797736.asp

http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/neo/pha.html
http://neat.jpl.nasa.gov/
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/releases/2002/release_2002_79.html
http://impact.arc.nasa.gov/

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/planetearth/asteroid_jello_001122.html
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/newfound_crater_020731.html
http://www.space.com/news/asteroid_watch_020805.html
http://www.space.com/spacewatch/august_asteroid_020821.html