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UA gets $3.16 mil to continue killer-asteroid hunt

Jan. 11, 2009 12:00 AM

Arizona Republic

Associated Press

University of Arizona‘s Catalina Sky Survey has been awarded a $3.16 million NASA grant to continue protecting Earth from killer asteroids. The grant was announced by the university on Thursday and will fund the survey through 2012.

The survey tracks and identifies near-Earth objects, which are asteroids and comets that have come or are predicted to come within 130 million miles of the sun, making them a risk to hit Earth.

Scientists are looking for objects that are at least the size of 10 football fields. An object that size could disrupt the food chain because of the huge amount of soil and rock it could send into the atmosphere, which could then block the sun’s rays for years.

- Associated Press

Bob Hagen (1003 Posts)