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Monday, May 21, 2012

NASA Survey Counts Potentially Hazardous Asteroids

Simulated, edge-on view of our solar system

New results from NASA's NEOWISE survey find that more potentially hazardous asteroids, or PHAs, are closely aligned with the plane of our solar system than previous models suggested. PHAs are the subset of near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) with the closest orbits to Earth's orbit, coming within 5 million miles (about 8 million kilometers). They are also defined as being large enough to survive passage through Earth's atmosphere and cause damage on a regional, or greater, scale.

Read More: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-138

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