Well, that's it, happy campers. The end is nigh! According to scientists, a newly-discovered asteroid is on a collision course with Earth.

The asteroid will come within spittin' distance of us in October 2028. It's a mile wide and they've called it by the romantic moniker of 1997XF11. It will track inside the orbit of the Moon and pass within 26,000 miles of Earth.

There is a 1000 to one chance it won't miss what is, one might argue, a rather large target (us!). That's roughly the same odds as being hit by lightning, BTW.

1997XF11 was discovered on Dec 6, 2006, by the University of Arizona Spacewatch people who have now added it the list of 108 other asteroids we know about, that are considered "potentially hazardous objects".  (108 other potential disasters spinning about up there! And nobody's mentioned it until now! Eeeek!)

In 2028, I will be 69 years old. That's too young to die and too old to deal with being around afterward. Rats.

I shall now have to revise my plans for the new house I was planning to build.

Does anyboy know if you can get asteroid bunkers in kit form?

Read the full story on the BBC website.

hmmm, so shopping list for when I do buy a house has just expanded to include the following: own water source (and filtration system in case the dust gets into water; underground hydroponic system well established; secure area in case of collision; as well as the usual cooking living sleeping spaces to suit my hoped for lifestyle in the meantime lol.

Kind of puts global warming into perspective, doesn't it? It's taken humanity almost 100 years to make a modest start on lousing up the planet, and Nature comes along and completely demolishes life on Earth in a split second.

hmm... well, i'll be 38 so the world will end for my mid-life crisis. pity about not getting the new sports car, i was looking forward to that.