Asteroid named after leading nuclear scientist of China&#39;s:
148563
[World News]: Beijing, Dec 27 : An asteroid discovered by a Chinese observatory has been named after Zhu Guangya, a leading nuclear scientist, for his contributions to the nation, the state media reported today.
73963
China will launch its first lunar probe this week, an official said Monday  -  weeks after regional rival Japan put one in high orbit over the moon in a big leap forward in Asia's undeclared space race
435132
Today's close passage of the relatively large asteroid, Toutatis, has presented astronomers with a new ruler to measure solar system distances. By using two telescopes separated by hundreds of miles, the classic parallax method validates the asteroid's orbital path...
601910
There&#39;s a one-in-300 chance a recently discovered asteroid, believed to be about 400 metres long, could hit Earth in 2029, a NASA scientist said Thursday.
127671
When I was an astronomy student at Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands, pioneer asteroid hunters Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld and her husband Kees van Houten were about to retire, after very fruitful careers. Their legacy was the discovery of over 2000 asteroids, of which some 1800 yielded orbits, in collaboration with Prof. Tom Gehrels of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at Tucson, Arizona. ...
211904
Aviation pioneer Burt Rutan has been fondly remembering his childhood hero - German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun. The X-Prize victor recently hooked up with two surviving members of von Braun&#39;s V2 team
241442
And snaps pics of Mars The comet-hunting spacecraft Rosetta has sent back its first sighting of the asteroid 21-Lutetia, one of two rocky bodies it will study en route to the comet 67p Churyumov-Gerasimenko. It will not get anywhere close to the rock for more than two years, but has already begun sending back preliminary data.â¦
130283
PPARC -- British astronomers are providing a vital component to the world-wide effort of identifying and monitoring rogue asteroids and comets. From this month, the UK Astrometry and Photometry Programme (UKAPP) for Near-Earth Objects, based at Queens University, Belfast, will track Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) and feed their crucial information into the international programme of protecting the Earth from any future impact by a comet or asteroid...
320772
Telescopes spy the closest asteroid flyby ever recorded. Also: European astronomers find a 'super Earth' 300 trillion light years away.... and did DOS trickery foil the Spirit rover? By Amit Asaravala.
348527
An astrophysicist  is among 68 NI people to be named on the Queen's Birthday Honours list.
177713
Polonium-210 &#151; the radioactive substance that killed a former Russian spy in London &#151; is one of the world's rarest elements, first discovered in the 19th century by scientists Marie and Pierre Curie.
15712
PARIS: A team led by the world&#39;s most successful fossil hunter said that they have found the remains of a feathery dragon-like forerunner of the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex at a dinosaur graveyard in northeastern China.
17449
Tributes have been paid to astronomer  Fred Whipple who has died. He was the first scientist to describe comets as "dirty snowballs".
653796
Chinese astronomers mark the beginning of Supernova 1054, heralding the birth of what will become known as the Crab Nebula.
589956
A top Indian nuclear scientist and the scientific mastermind behind the country&#39;s first atomic test, has died in the western city of Bombay (Mumbai).
615991
An asteroid with a wild orbit is about to zoom by our planet. Plus: Solving the mystery of the Pioneer anomaly could take decades.... A biologist finds a chunk of space shuttle Columbia. By Amit Asaravala.
423644
Toutatis, a potato-shaped asteroid about 4.6 km (3 miles) in its longest extent, will pass within 1,550,000 km (963,000 miles) of the Earth&#39;s center on Wednesday, September 29, 2004 - reaching its closest approach at 13:35:28 GMT (06:35:28 PDT).