Official News page 6

REAL LIFE NEWS: ASTEROID COLLISION - EVERYBODY PANIC! NO, WAIT...

by Hazed

A few weeks back, there was panic at the Minor Planet Center, which is the world clearinghouse for information about newly discovered asteroids. They raised the alarm after tracking a brand new celestial body, that seemed to be heading straight towards Earth. They announced that it would miss the Earth by just 5,600 km - a distance of less than half the diameter of the planet, and one of the closest approaches they'd ever seen. That's too close for comfort; they would only have to be a smidgeon out in their calculations and the thing could impact on the Earth. Time to panic!

But wait... all was not as it seemed. It turned out the newly discovered asteroid wasn't, after all. It was actually the European space probe Rosetta, launched back in 2004 and heading out to make a rendezvous with comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014. Panic over, and red faces all round.

So why was it heading towards Earth, instead of away?

Because it was boosting its velocity by using the gravity assist technique, or slingshot, with no fewer than three flybys of Earth and one of Mars. It made its flyby on Tuesday November 13, passing just 5,301 km above the Pacific Ocean. So at least the asteroid-doomsayers got the distance from Earth about right, even if they were wrong about the origin of the "celestial body".

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