Yahoo! News :: Science

Billion-dollar European probe set for asteroid encounter (AFP)

<p><a href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/science/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080905/ts_afp/spaceeuropeasteroid"><img src="http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/afp/20080905/capt.cps.nmn59.030908044818.photo00.photo.default-512x384.jpg?x=130&y=97&q=85&sig=G3hKSK.XGeOC8sT1dcyE.Q--" align="left" height="97" width="130" alt="Artist's impression of the European Space Agency (ESA) probe Rosetta with Mars in the background. The pride of the ESA, Rosetta, has been ordered out of hibernation four and a half years into a 10-year trek that will take it into the dark chill of deep space, scheduled to rendezvous in 2014 with Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, sending down a refrigerator-sized lab to examine its crusty surface.(AFP/File/C.Carreau)" border="0" /></a>AFP - Far from Earth, a robot spacecraft has been prodded from deep slumber to make a rare encounter with an asteroid, the intriguing orbital debris that could offer clues into the making of the Solar System.</p><br clear="all"/>