Here’s a little “Did You Know” for your Monday afternoon:

Did you know that there is an asteroid, about the size of two and a half football fields, that is going to pass quite near to Earth in April of 2029? How close? Well, it’s going to pass close enough to fly under our weather satellites. And Earth’s gravity is going to affect the giant space rock ever so slightly.

If that asteroid passes through a small area (give it a one in a million chance), the Earth’s gravity will bend its trajectory in such a way, that seven years later on a Friday the 13th, that asteroid will hit Earth.

This is just one of the fun facts explored in this TED talk, held by Bad Astronomy’s Phil Plait.

The main point of the talk, other than the scare the absolute crap out of everybody, is to discuss how we protect our lovely planet from mayhem. Basically: deflect them. No landing on them and blowing them up with an A-bomb. And no, we probably don’t need Bruce Willis for this. Deflect, and then coax it away. The coaxing it away is the really interesting part. Enjoy:

So in theory, we could avoid total annihilation if that asteroid comes hurling toward Earth in 2036. That’s good news. Because like he says, the dinosaurs had a really bad day millions of years ago. That would sure suck if humans had to experience the same fate.

The dream of exploring space fades for kids once they find out that knowing all the constellations and major stars in the sky is just the start. Instead of phasers and starships and boldly going where no one has gone before, there’s a lot of advanced mathematics to learn.

Finding joy in the starts needn’t be a distant dream with Google Earth. Sky in the app displays a lot more to see, the Google LatLong blog said today.

Views of space range from the most current, using NASA space telescopes to “see” the universe at different spectrums of energy, to a glimpse from the past:

…the new version of Sky also brings you glimpses of the sky as seen by astronomers in the 17th century. Constellation maps from the David Rumsey collection and the U.S. Naval Library show the astronomical state of the art, three centuries ago (there be dragons).

If the visuals are not enough, the LatLong blog also noted the presence of podcasts about upcoming sky events in the Earth & Sky layer. These podcasts discuss visual treats like meteor showers as well as astronomical news.

The LatLong blog also announced the availability of Sky, Moon and Mars imagery in the Google Maps API. “This allows any developer to build interesting applications and websites using Sky imagery, and extend the Sky experience to any place on the web,” they said.

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