:26:00
what I am about
to tell you.
:26:02
It's a bit complicated,
so it will take some time,
:26:05
so I hope
you will bear with me,
:26:07
hear what I have to say.
:26:09
A little over a year ago,
:26:12
2 American astronomers,
Marcus Wolfand Leo Biederman,
:26:16
working on a mountain top
in Arizona...
:26:18
Shh.
:26:20
Nobody say
anything.
:26:21
saw something
in the night sky
:26:23
that caused them
great concern.
:26:24
A comet.
:26:26
But the comet was, well...
:26:29
There was a remote possibility
that the comet was on a path
:26:33
that could bring it into
direct contact with the Earth.
:26:36
:26:38
Now...
:26:40
we get hit all the time
by rocks and meteors,
:26:43
some of them the size of cars,
some no bigger than your hand.
:26:46
But the comet we discovered
is the size of New York City.
:26:49
From the north side
of Central Park to the Battery.
:26:52
About 7 miles long.
:26:55
Put another way,
:26:57
this comet is larger
than Mount Everest.
:27:00
It weighs 500 billion tons.
:27:04
Now, chances are...
:27:07
Astrophysicists, geologists
and climatologists.
:27:10
Where the hell
is Science?
:27:11
Check with Tokyo, Tel Aviv.
I want everybody.
:27:14
The Hale-Bopp stand-ups.
:27:16
Graphics!
I need graphics!
:27:18
President Beck: Comets begin
far out in space.
:27:21
They're what's left over
:27:22
from the creation
of the solar system
:27:24
after the planets were formed
billions of years ago.
:27:27
These chunks
of space debris
:27:29
are in an elongated orbit
around our sun,
:27:32
but every now and then
:27:33
one of them gets bumped
:27:34
like a billiard ball
on a pool table
:27:37
and is knocked
into a different orbit.
:27:39
If this comet continues
on its path around the sun
:27:42
and keeps
its present course,
:27:44
sometime on August 16,
roughly a year from now,
:27:47
there's a chance
that we might have impact.
:27:49
So for the past 8 months,
the United States and Russia
:27:54
have been building the largest
spaceship ever constructed.
:27:58
It's being built in orbit
around the Earth.