A near miss

A near armageddon moment at 04h44 GMT today when asteroid 2004 XP14 missed earth by a paltry 432,709 km. Okay, well it was close in celestial terms - around 1.1 times the distance between the earth and the moon.

The asteroid was first noticed by the LINEAR (Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research) project, a research group funded by the US Air Force and NASA.

Could it be the first time Hollywood tells the scientists "I told you so"?

Meanwhile, the Discovery Shuttle is delayed again by bad weather.