Kicker - The dangerous asteroid tracker

NICK EICHER, HOST: So how’d you like to have the job of tracking asteroids that might strike Earth?

Well, NASA has that job, and it’s not easy to make the proper calculations. Back in 2004, scientists were concerned that dangerous asteroid 99942 Apophis was on a collision course with us. Predictions said, the year 2036, then 2068, and now it seems we’re good for at least the rest of this century.

Apophis does orbit the sun and it will make a close pass by the year 2029, and by close, we mean 20-thousand miles. But given the vastness of space, it is kind of skin-of-the-teeth close.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

(Photo/iStock) Cape Canaveral, FL, USA- January 2, 2011: The NASA’s Logo Signage at the Kennedy Space Center, NASA in Florida, USA.

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