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WASHINGTON - Amateur astronomers could receive awards of $3,000 for discovering and tracking near-Earth asteroids under legislation approved by the House Wednesday. "Given the vast number of asteroids and comets that inhabits Earth's neighborhood, greater efforts for tracking and monitoring these objects are critical," said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., sponsor of the legislation that passed 404-1. Astronomers estimate there are between 900 and 1,100 near-Earth asteroids with a diameter of at least one kilometer - about six-tenths of a mile - or larger. Of those, nearly 700 already have been discovered and cataloged. Asteroids capable of inflicting damage on a...

VALE, Oregon - Typically, the irrigation water in Malheur County lasts until mid-October. But not this year. The water supply is being cut off two months early. A three-year drought has already forced some farmers near Vale, Oregon out of business. The 500 farmers using the Vale Irrigation District have seen the water sources dry up early before, and it will happen in about 4 days. And for the third year, it's happening in mid-august. Crops such as hay, potatoes, and sugar beets can't survive with the water cut off this early. "This year and last year farmers had to...

STATUS REPORT Date Released: Monday, July 28, 2003 Ames Research Center NASA NEO News: Open Letter to Congress on Near Earth Objects July 8, 2003 Re: The Imperative to Address the Impact Threat From Near Earth Objects (NEOs) Dear Members of Congress: We write to you today as concerned citizens, convinced that the time has come for our nation to address comprehensively the impact threat from asteroids and comets. A growing body of scientific evidence shows that some of these celestial bodies, also known as Near Earth Objects (NEOs), pose a potentially devastating threat of collision with Earth, capable of...

The end is near -- but only south of the border By MICHAEL VALPY Saturday, April 26, 2003 - Page F8 A Time/CNN poll has found that 17 per cent of Americans -- nearly one in five -- believe that the end of the world will come in their lifetimes, and 59 per cent believe that the prophecies about the end of the world found in the Christian New Testament Book of Revelations are true and will happen, if not in the near future. Apparently, many of them also think that British Prime Minister Tony Blair fits the definition of...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 April 6 Phobos: Doomed Moon of Mars Credit: Viking Project, JPL, NASA; Image mosaic by Edwin V. Bell II (NSSDC/Raytheon ITSS) Explanation: This moon is doomed. Mars, the red planet named for the Roman god of war, has two tiny moons, Phobos and Deimos may well be captured asteroids originating in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter or perhaps from even more distant reaches of...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 March 1 Stereo Eros Credit: NEAR Project, JHU APL, NASA Explanation: Get out your red/blue glasses and float next to asteroid 433 Eros, 170 million kilometers away! Orbiting the Sun once every 1.8 earth-years, asteroid Eros is a diminutive 40 x 14 x 14 kilometer world of undulating horizons, craters, boulders and valleys. Its unsettling scale and bizarre shape are emphasized in this picture - a mosaic...

Monday, 20 January, 2003, 10:45 GMTJapan bankruptcies near record Record numbers of Japanese companies are taking a tumble Nearly 20,000 firms went bankrupt in Japan during 2002, the second-highest number of corporate failures since World War II. The danger exists that the special bank inspections... could act as a spark for a surge in bankruptcies And experts predict that this year even more companies will go under, because the government is pushing Japanese banks to adopt stricter accounting standards. Later this month the Financial Services Agency will begin a second round of special inspections to examine the balance sheets of...