Webcast News Service, September 28, 2004

Earth is about to gets its closest brush this century with a massive asteroid, a hurtling space rock astronomers say is big enough to cause global devastation if it were to collide with the planet.

The asteroid, named Toutatis, will be within 960,000 miles of Earth on Wednesday. Although doomsayers are predicting the Earth's demise, Toutatis will keep its distance, passing four times as far as the Moon.

It is the asteroid's closest pass to the Earth in more than 600 years.

Scientists say there is no chance the asteroid will collide with Earth, despite rumors that have been circulating on the internet for months.

The passing asteroid, which measures about 3 miles by 2 miles, will not be visible to the naked eye. But, observers in the Southern Hemisphere will be able to see it pass by with the help of a telescope.

Toutatis follows an elliptical orbit around the Sun. Toutatis's eccentric, four-year orbit extends from just inside the Earth's orbit to the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Close encounters with Venus, Earth, Mars and Jupiter constantly alter the shape of the asteroid's path as it loops through the solar system every 4 years.

Contrary to some press reports, the variability of Toutatis's orbit does not render the asteroid's path unpredictable. "Actually, we know Toutatis's orbit better than that of any other near-Earth asteroid," says Jon Giorgini of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "The radar data we collected during close approaches in the 1990's let us usefully predict its trajectory over a few hundred years, from about 1300-2500 AD. We're safe from collisions for at least several centuries."

Toutatis was discovered in 1989 and is named after a Celtic false god. Toutatis is considered one of the strangest bodies in the Solar System, given its peculiar rotation and odd shape, which resembles two chunks of rock connected by a narrow neck-like structure. The rocky body's strange traits are believed to be the result of a history of violent collisions.

Asteroids, sometimes known as minor planets, are small orbiting bodies composed of rock and metals. Scientists estimate that there are more than 100,000 near-Earth asteroids larger than a football stadium.