The Return of Dr. Zoot

  Well, it was never that the good Doctor hadn't warned them about it, as he had done so since he was a young beginner at the Observatory. He had, right from the moment when he had first observed the anomaly. He had been a young man then, so young, that his older peers looked upon him with a certain amount of contempt. For he, young George Zoot over there sitting at his desk, had already earned a double Doctorate and an assortment of different Masters, all before his eighteenth birthday. Highly advertised when his mental prowess was first made apparent when he was just a toddler. Now of course they all held Doctorates too, and they ranged in age from twenty-seven to seventy-eight. His accomplishments were to them a freak thing of nature, and so they were inclined to not take him seriously? So when he announced to the room that he had found a new star in the Northeast quadrant of the sky that they all watched, his statement was made as if to himself, as they were content to pass it off as little more then a youthful exuberance?
  But there was this old professor, who taught in a small college below the mountain where the observatory was located. One day after dismissing his students from his guided tour of the facility, he engaged young George about his discovery. The old man took an immediate liking to the lad, and after their discussion, it was agreed that they would meet again tomorrow at precisely 1:45 Am, to allow enough time to accurately set the telescope to where this sighting should be. According to George, his star as he called it was the most visible between the hours of 2 AM and 2:15.
  So they prepared everything as was necessary, and when George located what he wanted the old man to see, he motioned him over to take a look. He watched for what seemed like to George to be the entire time? This being the only time when the sky was clear enough that it could be seen at all. When the old man finally backed away, he seemed a bit unstable and turned in the opposite direction to where the youth was. When he refocused, he said, My God son, you are right! Although it isn't a star or a planet, it is an asteroid and a big one! The flashing you see when it is visable, is only the lights from the planets within that solar system, and so it is only visable while passing other heavenly bodies. But why near the same time George asked? I don't know why that is, but unless I miss my guess, the trejectory looks as if it is in route to a near miss of the earth. We should alert the proper authorities about this find. As the full gravity of such a thing was considered, both sat not looking at the other, but rather, staring off in a private moment for what seemed to be a long time? This is big news indeed, George finally said.