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Astronomers have revealed how they came within minutes of alerting the world to a potential asteroid strike last month.
Some scientists believed on 13 January that a 30m object, later designated 2004 AS1, had a one-in-four chance of hitting the planet within 36 hours.
It could have caused local devastation and the researchers contemplated a call to President Bush before new data finally showed there was no danger.[continued]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3517319.stm