When it comes to asteroids' wreaking disaster on Earth, the real question is not if, but when. Two hundred or so large craters and a geological record stretching over billions of years provide ample evidence that, time and again, explosive impacts by asteroids or comets have devastated large parts of the planet, wiped out species and threatened the very existence of terrestrial life. Huntsville scientists collecting data from a doomed space probe may keep their jobs at least one to two more years, although NASA plans to destroy the probe as early as June. Officials at NASA headquarters haven't said just how long they will keep paying the researchers to catalog and analyze data from the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, but their jobs probably won't end in the next year. Spaceflight Now .
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