Asteroids play several potential roles in science fiction: as places human beings might colonize, resources for extracting minerals, hazards encountered by spaceships traveling between two other points, and as a threat to life on Earth by potential impact. An enormous black asteroid zoomed past the Earth Tuesday. The asteroid was said to be "the size of an aircraft carrier." The thing passed within the moon's orbit. It posed no threat to our world. It did, however, afford experts a unique close-up glimpse at one of these celestial bodies. It was the largest thing to pass that near to our world since the nation's bicentennial in 1976. Battleship-sized asteroid buzzes the Earth closer than the moon. Apart from its size, YU55 is one of the more common types of asteroids. It is carbon-rich and may contain frozen water and useful metals that could be harvested by future space travelers. With the space shuttle program discontinued, NASA’s next plan — targeted for 2025 — is a manned venture to an asteroid.
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