SPACE

"It scares me," said Jack Hills, an astronomer at New Mexico's Los Alamos National Laboratory. "It really does." He and the rest of the world had good reason to be worried. Astronomer Brian Marsden, at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics had just announced that a newly discovered asteroid 1.6 km wide was headed for Earth and might pass as close as 48,000km in the year 2028. "The chance of an actual collision is small," Marsden reported, "but not entirely out of the question."

An actual collision? With an asteroid of that size? It sounded like the stuff of science fiction and grade-B movies. But front-page stories and TV newscasts around the world soon made clear that the possibility of a direct hit and a global catastrophe well within the lifetime of most people on Earth today was all too real.

Then suddenly, the danger was gone. Barely a day later, new data and new calculations showed that the asteroid, dubbed 1997 XF11, presented no threat at all. It would miss Earth by 1 million Km - closer than any previously observed asteroid of that size but a comfortable distance. Still, the incident focused attention once and for all on the largely ignored danger that asteroids and comets pose to life on Earth.

XF11 was discovered last Dec. 6 by astronomer Jim Scotti, a member of the University of Arizona's Spacewatch group, which scans the skies for undiscovered comets and asteroids. Using a 77-year-old telescope equipped with an electronic camera, he had recorded three sets of images. The digitized images, fed into a computer programmed to look for objects moving against the background of fixed stars, revealed an asteroid that Scotti, in an e-mail to Marsden, described as standing out "like a sore thumb."

 

QUESTIONS

1. Read each definition below and choose the word from the list that matches the definition. (2 points)

Newly

Chance

Actual

Front-page

Data

Comfortable

Scans

 

	Important or sensational.
	Looks at closely, scrutinizes.
	Facts or figures from which conclusions can be inferred, information.
	The possibility of an occurrence.
	True or real.

 

2. Answer the following questions according to the text. Try to use your own words (2 points).

a. Why was Jack Hills worried?

 

b. After additional analysis, how close to Earth will the asteroid come?

 

c. What is the name of the asteroid?

 

d. How was the asteroid discovered?

 

3. Rewrite the following sentences without changing the meaning of the original (1.5 points).

a. “The chance of an actual collision is small,” Marsden reported.

Marsden reported that

b. Then suddenly, the danger was gone. Barely a day later, new data and new calculations showed that the asteroid presented no threat at all.

As soon as

c. XF11 was discovered last December 6 by astronomer Jim Scotti.

Astronomer Jim Scotti

 

4. According to the text below, provide the appropriate form of the verb in parentheses (1.5 points).

            Much more recently, in 1908, an asteroid or a chunk of a comet less than 60m across (1. rocket) ____________________ into the atmosphere and (2. explode) ____________________ about 8km above the unpopulated Tunguska region of Siberia. The blast, estimated at tens of megatons, (3. devastate) ____________________ an area of hundreds of square km, knocking down trees, starting fires and killing reindeer. If it (4. occur) ____________________ over a large city, hundreds of thousands (5. die) ____________________.

 

5. Composition (120 words). Do you think there is life on other planets?