Scientists Warn the World About Asteroid

Here’s something we should all warn our great-great grandchildren about: an asteroid named 1999 RQ36 may slam into Earth in the year 2182.

1999 RQ36 is about 1800 feet long and has the capacity to wipe out humans from the face of the Earth in a manner similar to what happened to dinosaurs. (Yikes.)

Granted, the possibilities of it actually hitting our planet are not that high (one in a thousand,) scientists are still closely tracking the asteroid’s movements, as what they’ve been doing since its discovery in 1999.

Learning about the news, we couldn’t help but imagine ways on how to obliterate that big chunk of space rock. Can we vaporize it with an uber hi-tech weapon? Maybe Earth can send someone heroic to blow the thing up? And just as Leaving on a Jet Plane by Chantal Kreviazuk started swelling up in our heads, we stopped ourselves and remembered that the Mayan calendar indicates that the world will hit its end in 2012.

So until we survive that end of the world prophecy, we’ve decided to leave all the asteroid worries to the scientists.

[via MSNBC and TIME]

Virgin Galactic’s Test Flight Encounters Trouble

Looks like the world will have to wait a bit more before earthlings can take a vacation in outer space. WhiteKnightTwo, Virgin Galactic’s passenger-carrying spaceship collapsed during its landing at the Mojave Desert on Thursday.

Technicalities weren’t disclosed, but apparently, it was due to a damaged left main landing gear.

No injuries were reported (whew!) However, this means that citizens of the world, most especially the 300 clients who already put down 200 grand for a ticket will have to be more patient because they obviously won’t be zooming out of the Earth’s atmosphere any time soon.

[via MSNBC]