Dear John and Doves,

Some posters have been a bit alarmed by talk of close encounters with asteroids.   According to PHA (Potentially Hazardous Asteroids) site at

http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/lists/PHACloseApp.html there are known asteroids which are due to make close approaches in 2004. An astronomical unit is the distance between earth and the sun. I have had these listed on my calendar for some time. The close approaches during 2004 are -

8^th May          Asteroid 2001 U.S.16 Distance from earth - 0.02850 Astronomical Units.

13^th May         2004 HC39                                            0.03439

24^th May         2004 FJ11                                             0.03384

26^th June         Itokawa 25143                                       0.01290

11^th July         1999 MN                                               0.01737

29^th Sept.        Toutatis 4179                                          0.01036

The moon is 384,401 Ks or 0.00256 Astronomical units distance from earth. None of these asteroids are expected to come near earth, or the moon.

The nearest likely future approach is on 26^th June 2028 when Asteroid 2001 WN5 is expected to pass by at 0.001670 A.U. distance, which I understand is inside the moon's orbit. There was quite a bit of alarm in the media when this Asteroid was first discovered in 1996.

As mentioned, these are known asteroids. There are more being discovered all the time - about 30 so far this year according to the lists at the above site.

God Bless You All. Annette