The asteroid Apophis is extremely unlikely to hit the Earth any time soon, but we do know that it's slated to make two close passes, closing to a distance of 36,000 kilometers or so in 2029 and again in 2036. These events should give us pause -- this is an object some 335 meters in diameter weighing an estimated 25 million tons. It's 90 stories tall, if you like to think in skyscraper terms, which is what Greg Matloff probably likes to do, given that the physicist and asteroid deflection expert works at New York City College of Technology (City Tech). Of Apophis, Matloff says, "We don't always know this far ahead of time that they're coming, but an Apophis impact is very unlikely." A good thing, too, for a strike by an object of this size would be catastrophic. This City Tech news release offers a look at Matloff's ideas on what to do if we find a Near-Earth Object on a collision course. He's a proponent of diverting rather than destroying such objects because of the potential for...