Massive, unstoppable rock hurtles toward Earth

An asteroid the size of the U.S.S. Nimitz is bearing down on Earth. NASA's Near-Earth Object Program says the impact of the rock, dubbed 2005 YU55, would equal a 4,000-megaton blast and create 70-foot high tsunami waves, CBS News reports. That's near 200,000 times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima or Nagasaki. Fortunately for us, NASA predicts the murderous cosmic body will miss our planet by about 202,000 miles, passing around 6:28 p.m. on Tuesday. That's about 0.85 times the distance to the moon, NASA says. The last time an asteroid this size came this close to Earth was in 1976, and it shouldn't happen again until 2028 -- provided we're still here. Read the entire article: http://www.wtop.com/?nid=884&sid=2624431

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