EASTER SUNDAY ASTEROID ON PATH TOWARD EARTH
Forget about President Obama's State of the Union Address, writes Ray
Villard, news director for the Hubble Space Telescope, America's real
"Sputnik moment" should be attempting to deflect an asteroid currently hurtling
toward Earth.
Earlier this year, Russian scientist Leonid Sokolov of St. Petersburg State
University announced
his calculations that the asteroid Apophis will pass within 18,000 miles of
Earth, close enough to knock geosynchronous satellites out of the sky.
Villard warns, however, that when Apophis comes screaming by on Easter
Sunday, April 13, 2036, there's no guarantee it won't stray from course and
strike the planet.