A new NASA survey has pinned down the number of asteroids that could pose a collision threat to Earth in what scientists say is the best estimate yet of the potentially dangerous space rocks.

The survey found there are likely 4,700 potentially hazardous asteroids, plus or minus 1,500 space rocks, that are larger than 330 feet (100 meters) wide and in orbits that occasionally bring them close enough to Earth to pose a concern, researchers said. To date, only about 30 percent of those objects have actually been found, they added.

Potentially hazardous asteroids, or PHAs in NASA-speak, are space rocks in orbits that come within 5 million miles (8 million kilometers) of Earth and are large enough to cause damage on regional or global scale if they were ever to hit our planet.

The new study was based on observations from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), an infrared space telescope. While the telescope data returned an estimate of the potentially dangerous near-Earth asteroid population that is similar to previous projections, it also revealed some surprising new results.

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It's no fairy tale: Four hungry white dwarfs have been found "snacking" on the shattered remains of Earthlike planets, according to a new study.

The findings foreshadow what might happen to our solar system when the sun dies in about five billion years, astronomers say.

As stars like our sun run out of nuclear fuel, they swell, becoming red giants. Astronomers think that when this happens to our star, its bulging atmosphere will engulf Mercury, Venus, and maybe even Earth.

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Last night turned out pretty interesting, despite the wind!! Thanks to Linda for showing up with her 6" homemade dobson. She did an awesome job!! Maria was on hand to help answer questions. And we had a lot of questions! Joey only took the 8" Orion due to the high wind gusts. But we still had some great views. The pictures in our photo album were taken with our cell phones, of all things!!! They still turned out pretty cool! Check them out!

Buying a telescope, like buying a car or stereo equipment, is subject to your tastes as a consumer. In other words, the choice is up to you — but Astronomy can provide some guidelines to make your purchase as informed as possible. The next sections detail the different types of telescopes along with a bit of history and some general advantages and disadvantages for each. If you're familiar with telescope designs, you can skip to the section, "Things to remember when buying a telescope."

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Tonight Joey and I will be at Swantner Park to do a little moon watching.
Swantner Park is located on Ocean Dr between Airline and Ennis Joslin.
If anyone is interested in getting a closeup view of the moon, please feel free to join us after sunset!! Bring a chair, we will have binoculars and telescopes for your viewing pleasure.