Asteroid Threat To Earth Diminished...01/12/00

(AP) - Earth may be threatened by fewer killer asteroids than astronomers thought. Scientists had estimated that 1,000 to 2,000 mountain-sized asteroids periodically cross Earth's orbit. That translated into about a 1% chance in the next 1,000 years of one of those asteroids slamming into Earth with catastrophic consequences. But new research suggests that Earth shares the inner solar system with only half as many of these large, "near-Earth" asteroids - about 700. Though the new findings cut in half the chances of a giant asteroid collision in the thousand-year time-frame, that doesn't mean humans can let their guard down when it comes to watching the skies for potentially life-snuffing asteroids, said David Rabinowitz of Yale University, the study's co-author.