Asteroid to pass by Earth on weekend
 

Don't try to catch it:

http://cbc.ca/stories/2002/08/16/asteroid020816

A quick clip from the article:

"Skygazers with binoculars or a small telescope will have a rare chance to spot an asteroid pass close to the Earth this weekend.

Scientists from London, Ont., the Czech Republic and the United States will be studying the speeding chunk of rock as it hurtles past at 21 kilometres per second.

At about 530,000 kilometres away, or slightly farther than the Moon, astronomers consider it a "near miss."

"It's pretty rare for an object this big to get so close to the Earth," said University of Western Ontario Prof. Peter Brown. "1925 is the last time an object this big has gotten this close.""

Wow, another cool article at the bottom of that page:

Language gene keeps apes tongue tied

http://cbc.ca/stories/2002/08/15/lang_gene020815

quick clip:

"When the researchers compared DNA from humans originating in Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Guinea, they found the language gene became established within the last 200,000 years.

The time frame matches the evolutionary split between modern humans and Neanderthals."

We looked at the asteroid the other night when it was the brightest. It was sort of a letdown. :( It probably would have been alot more impressive if we had my stepsons large telescope but with high powered binoculars, there just wasn't much to see.

I rounded up a bunch of kids in the neighbourhood, and right when it gets closest, we are going to pummel it with rocks. Anyone you want to join us?

ooooh flying rocks heheh...