The Twins Paradox, Alan Gasparutti [online e reader txt] 📗

sixty thousand miles per hour.”
“How long will it be before the asteroid approaches Earth's orbit at that rate?” asked the Professor.
“Late March,” replied Steve.
“Well at least we have another month to prepare the crew for Operation Armageddon,” said the Professor. “The missiles are already prepared, we just need to fit them to the shuttle and carry out some practice for the missions.”
“The shuttle isn't supposed to travel 800,000 miles from Earth,” said Steve. “That's very nearly four times the distance of the Moon.”
“If the asteroid comes to about 800,000 miles from Earth we may not need to launch the shuttle,” said the Professor. “I'm worried that the asteroid will come closer, a lot closer. It's movements and motions have changed so many times, I often doubt if it is an asteroid.”
“You don't think it's a ship carrying aliens?” Steve queried.
“I don't know, Steve,” said the Professor. “Stranger things have happened. If you'd asked me six months ago whether an asteroid could travel at one million miles per hour, I'd have said no. If you'd asked me whether an asteroid could change it's speed, I'd have said no, wouldn't you?”
“I guess so,” sighed Steve. “Shall I inform the Russians' about the asteroid, or do you want to do the honour?”
“I think you'd better,” Professor Marshall advised. “Ask them to send the next set of images over tonight. Robert can come in and double-check the results. Let's hope the asteroid, or whatever it may be, isn't due to come any closer to Earth.”
“Shall I inform Dermot at the European Space Agency?” suggested Steve.
“Yes, sure,” replied the Professor. “The more people we can get to examine the data, the more help we can get in the coming months. Hopefully, they may find something wrong with the results.”
“What about the President?” queried Steve. “Shouldn't you inform him too?”
“I don't think the President is really interested,” said the Professor. “I'll let Mr Luddolmans know instead. It'll probably sound better coming from Fred.”

After speaking to Fred and making a few more calls, Professor Marshall had a thought, and went back down to Steve's office.
“Steve, when did we start monitoring that asteroid?” he asked.
“September,” replied Steve. “Why do you ask?”
“I'd like you to request ISS images in the same area prior to September,” the Professor asked. “I'd like you to find earlier images of this asteroid.”
“But that'll be like searching for a needle in a haystack,” said Steve.
“Maybe,” replied the Professor. “Remember though, this asteroid has remained in a similar area of the sky since September. It's on a straight course, there have been slight movements, and they're not due to the Earth's orbit.”
“I suppose I can find our first image of the asteroid and calculate it's previous movements,” muttered Steve. “We know it was travelling at over a million miles per hour before smashing into the Kuiper belt.”
“Supposedly,” said the Professor.
“How do you mean?” asked Steve.
“If that thing is an asteroid we may detect where precisely it came from, whether there may have been an impact from the Oort cloud, and how fast it was traveling at earlier,” replied the Professor. “I'm not convinced that thing is an asteroid.”
“Could it be a phenomenon we don't yet know about?” suggested Steve.
“I don't know,” replied the Professor. “I really don't know.”
Just at the time, Clint Williams had been walking past. He heard the Professor and Steve in discussion and listened to them while the door was open. He'd become interested in astronomy and was very curious in their discussion. As the Professor was about to leave the room, Clint walked away so no-one was any wiser. However, in the canteen at lunchtime, he saw Steve eating at his table, so took the opportunity to join him.
“Hi doc’,” he greeted him. “You don't mind if I sit here, do you?”
“No, of course not,” said Steve. “By the way, you can call me Steve. How's the training going?”
“Okay,” replied Clint. “I hear you may require my services soon.”
“We may well indeed,” said Steve. “That asteroid seems to be coming a lot closer to Earth than we had first anticipated.”
“How close is it perceived to come now?” asked Clint.
“800,000 miles,” Steve informed Clint. “Somehow, I think we haven't heard the last of this, either.”
“Do you reckon it will come any closer?” asked Clint.
“I don't know,” replied Steve. “It's movements have become rather eratic to say the least.”
“Why is that?” Clint asked curiously.
“I simply don't know,” replied Steve. “The asteroid may have smashed into other asteroids, meteorites or comets along the way, but it's speed is like something from a science-fiction movie.”
“Has it been travelling at light-speed?” queried Clint. “Do you think there could be aliens?”
“I don't know,” said Steve. “You seem rather interested in this all of a sudden?”
“Well, over recent months, I've had a lot of time to read books on astronomy, when I'm not training for the shuttle,” replied Clint. “I've become fascinated in outer space. There are some things which are astounding – I never realised how many factors have contributed to our world.”
“And to us being here,” added Steve.
“Indeed,” said Clint. “I used to think there must be some other life forms out there somewhere, but realising the vast distances between the stars makes me appreciate just how long it would take other civilisations to travel to Earth.”
“Well that's largely what makes this asteroid so abnormal,” said Steve. “It's been traveling at speeds we've never envisaged. It's taken 4 months to get from Pluto to Mars – our missions to the outer planets have taken several years to travel the same distance.”
“I still believe there is life out there somewhere,” said Clint. “We've just got to be aware if and when they're approaching Earth.”
“And whether they're friend or foe,” added Steve.
“Do you think this could be some super-human race?” asked Clint.
“Personally, I don't think so,” replied Steve. “On the other hand, this asteroid has broken some fundamental rules by such excessive margins that I wouldn't rule anything out. Not even aliens from outer space.”
“I've heard that the Europeans want to visit the asteroid,” Clint queried.
“I don't think they'll do that now, not when they hear just how close this thing is coming,” replied Steve, before trying to change the subject. “By June you may become a household name.”
“Why's that?” asked Clint.
“The asteroid's due to make it's closest rendezvous with Earth in May,” Steve told him. “You'll be the man to knock it off it's course.”
“Well if I do do that, I'll just be doing my job,” said Clint.
“Just like Neil Armstrong all those years ago,” said Steve.
“And just like me and many others did in the Gulf,” added Clint.
“I didn't know you served in Vietnam,” queried Steve. “You look too young to have been to Vietnam.”
“I was only 18 when I went to Vietnam,” said Clint. “I was one of the last men sent out there.”
After brief conversations on a few other items, Clint finished his meal.
“Are you having desert?” he asked Steve.
“No I'm afraid I'd better not,” replied Steve before looking at his watch. “Is that the time?”
“You sound rather busy?” Clint queried.
“I've got a project for Professor Marshall,” said Steve. “I'll probably be gone when you come back, but no doubt I'll see you again sometime.”
Steve went back to his office soon afterwards. He had already examined the ISS images from August, but had identified all the stars in the picture (and there were thousands). He couldn't identify the asteroid in the images anywhere. He was now double-checking everything, but still every tiny spec on the images was accounted for. He contacted Professor Marshall to notify him of this.
“Frank, I can't find anything that may be the asteroid,” he told the Professor.
“Nothing at all?” queried the Professor. “Can you get enlarged images?”
“I can try,” replied Steve. “It's not really an enlarged image I need, just one with more detail.”
“Well contact the ISS anyway,” suggested Professor Marshall. “Perhaps they can get the images magnified.”
“It doesn't help that we don't have any reports to go with the images,” said Steve. “Even if we can get more detailed images, it's going to be like searching for a needle in mountain.”
“I know, I know,” replied the Professor. “I want to get to the bottom of this though. How old are the images – how much older than our earliest copies?”
“One week,” said Steve. “August 25th 2006.”
“Request images for the same area 5 days later,” suggested the Professor. “We've got to try something.”
“I'll see what I can do,” said Steve. “I can't promise anything though.”

Steve requested the images from the same area of the solar system on August 30th, and within the next hour he received them. It was now 2.00 in the afternoon though, and he hadn't yet started his main workload for the day. A couple of hours later, Professor Marshall called into the office.
“Have you managed to find anything yet?” he asked.
“Well, I may have found which specs can't be accounted for, that's not too far away from where we'd expect this asteroid to be” replied Steve. “I haven't managed to look through too much of this image though – there are so many tiny specs to sort and identify that I don't think I'll get this done until tomorrow.”
“Could you stay back a bit later today?” the Professor asked Steve, who simply stared at him.
“Frank, I've been looking at tiny specs all day long,” he told the Professor. “I have a headache, my eyes are aching and I need a rest.”
“Could you stay just a little later, if I can get Robert to come in at 6 tonight,” Professor Marshall requested. “You can show Rob what you've been doing and he can sort the rest of the images.”
“Maybe, maybe,” replied Steve. “If you want Rob to come in at 6' you’d better call him now then.”
“I'll see what I can do,” said the Professor. “If one of those specs that can't be accounted for is the asteroid, have you any idea how fast it may have been traveling at?”
“Not really,” said Steve. “This image has been magnified seven times already, so I guess it must have been traveling very, very fast. If you can get Rob to come in, perhaps he can do the calculations.”
“I'll call Rob, and let you know if he can make it in at 6',” the Professor told him.

After a little persuasion, Robert agreed to come in at 6 pm. Steve showed Rob what he'd been doing and asked him to note any spec which couldn't be identified. Later that evening, at 10.30, Professor Marshall eagerly called Robert.
“How are things going?” he asked. “Have you managed to identify everything on those images from August 30th?”
“Just about,” replied Robert. “The only item outstanding is one tiny spec Steve referred to earlier.”
“Have you calculated what speed it was traveling at?” asked the Professor.
“Well, taking into account the magnification of these images, the time between this and our earliest image, and assuming this is the asteroid, I reckon it will have been traveling at an average speed of 18 million miles per hour,” Robert told him.
“Have you double-checked this?” the Professor queried.
“Not yet,” replied Robert. “I have calculated it's speed from our earliest image. We estimated it was traveling at 1 million miles per hour after it had smashed into the Kuiper belt. We knew it was traveling faster before this, but I don't think we appreciated by how much.”
“Go on, go on,” Professor Marshall said to Robert curiously, awaiting the