Brian G. Marsden

It takes a dramatic event to get people's attention, and we thought the comet crash with Jupiter might have done the job...

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.

Quotes

When the Deep Impact probe hit Comet 9P/Tempel, there was almost no change in brightness...

This outburst by Comet Holmes is extreme! This is a terrific outburst. And since it doesn’t have a tail right now, some observers have confused it with a nova. We’ve had at least two reports of a new star.

• We have to beef up our searches, which are now pretty dismal, so we can find out about these things before we get hit. … It takes a dramatic event to get people's attention, and we thought the comet crash with Jupiter might have done the job. … we tend to ignore an extraterrestrial hazard that could reduce the planet to rubble. … What we really need is a good scare.
  • As quoted in "What We Need Is A Good Scare" by Steve Nadis at Omni internet (9 April 1997).

• What delighted me was that it's 30 years from now — not next week or next year. … That would be totally hopeless; that would be terrifying, in fact. Time is on our side in this one — that's why it's such a wonderful illustration of the process... I say 30 years is a good long time to do something about it if it is a problem … We should be thankful we have this kind of notice.
  • On initial reports that Asteroid 1997 XF₁₁ could be on a trajectory to hit the Earth in 2028; as quoted in "Man in the News; A Cheery Herald of Fear: Brian Geoffrey Marsden" in The New York Times (13 March 1998).

• 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.
  • "1997 XF₁₁ – the true story" in The Journal of the British Astronomical Association Vol. 109, No.1 (February 1999).

• When the Deep Impact probe hit Comet 9P/Tempel, there was almost no change in brightness. … This outburst by Comet Holmes is extreme!
  • On the unprecedented brightening of Comet Holmes, as quoted in "Mystery Comet Explodes into Brightness" (26 October 2007) at Physorg.com. Within the space of a few hours between 23-24 October 2007 it brightened from a very dim and obscure object requiring powerful telescopes to see into one easily visible to the naked eye.

• This is a terrific outburst. And since it doesn’t have a tail right now, some observers have confused it with a nova. We’ve had at least two reports of a new star.
  • As quoted in "Dramatic Comet Outburst Could Last Weeks" (26 October 2007) by Robert Roy Britt at Space.com.

External links

• "Man in the News; A Cheery Herald of Fear: Brian Geoffrey Marsden" in The New York Times (13 March 1998)
• Minor Planet Center