Comet chaser has close encounter with asteroid

A comet-chasing spacecraft has had one of mankind's closest encounters with an asteroid, providing a new insight into the mysterious space rocks. By Richard Gray, Science Correspondent The Rosetta spacecraft, which is due to land on a comet in 2015, flew within 800km of an asteroid known as Steins, orbiting in our solar system more than 220 million miles from Earth. Images beamed from the spacecraft show the... [read full story]