Big asteroid Toutatis passes (relatively) close to Earth
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At just past 6:30 am Pacific Time today, the mountain-size asteroid came within four times the distance of the moon to the Earth - a comparative measurement
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Toutatis, a mountain-sized asteroid, will today come the closest to the Earth since at least the 12th century, giving scientists an opportunity to gather data about it, NASA said on its Web site.
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&quot;This is the closest Toutatis will come for another 500 years, and its orbit is very well known,&quot; said Dr. Don Yeomans of NASA&#39;s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif.
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The world can exhale a collective sigh of relief. A newfound asteroid tagged with the highest warning level ever issued will not strike Earth, scientists said Monday.
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Astronomers have obtained the first images of an asteroid on course to make its closest approach to Earth on Tuesday, showing the space rock is lopsided.
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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).
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Earth is about to gets its closest brush this century with a massive asteroid, a hurtling space rock astronomers say is big enough to cause global devastation if it were to collide with the planet.
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A comet discovered earlier this year has now moved close enough to be visible without binoculars or telescopes by experienced observers under dark skies. It is expected to put on a modest show this month and into January.
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Toutatis, a mountain-sized asteroid, came the closest to the Earth since at least the 12th century, allowing scientists to gather data about its trajectory and features, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration said.
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There's a 1-in-300 chance that a recently discovered asteroid, believed to be about 1,300 feet long, could hit Earth in 2029, a NASA scientist said Thursday, but he added that the perceived risk probably will be eliminated once astronomers get more detail about its orbit.
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An asteroid may come uncomfortably close to Earth in 2036 and the United Nations should assume responsibility for a space mission to deflect it, a group of astronauts, engineers and scientists said on Saturday.
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Tumbling through space like a fumbled football, a peanut-shaped asteroid named 4179 Toutatis is expected to pass within a million miles (1.6 million kilometers) of Earth on Wednesday.
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A MASSIVE asteroid heading for Earth has a 1-in-300 chance of smashing into the planet in 2029, say boffins. The space rock is believed to be more than 1,300ft long and was only rediscovered
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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.
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A nearby star thought to harbor comets and asteroids now appears to be home to planets, too. The presumed worlds are smaller than Jupiter and could be as tiny as Pluto, new observations suggest.
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This summer, NASA will launch a robotic probe to visit two stange and giant asteroids -- one is covered with ice while the other may have been blasted by an ancient supernova. The tales these asteroids tell may reveal the true beginnings of our solar system.
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Astronomers spotted an asteroid this week after it had flown past Earth on a course that took it so close to the planet it was below the orbits of some satellites.