PLEASE NOTE:
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CCNet-ESSAY, 16 February 2000
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DEFENDING EARTH: FACT VS FICTION
By Michael Paine
Special to SPACE.com posted: 06:23 am EST 11 February
2000
http://www.space.com/space/technology/asteroid_defense_000211.html
First, the good news: Asteroid Eros is not on a collision course
with
the Earth.
At roughly twice the size of Manhattan Island, Eros is huge
compared
with other known near Earth asteroids. A collision by an object
this
size would be more devastating than the impact that is thought to
have
finished off the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
Eros in the news because, on Monday, after a torturous four year
journey, the NEAR spacecraft will attempt to become an artificial
moon
of Eros. A successful NEAR mission to Eros will show that we have
the
ability to rendezvous with an asteroid and to orbit it.
This ability is crucial if -- some scientists would say
"when" -- an
asteroid is discovered to be on a collision course with the
Earth.
. . . .