Closer encounter: Nasa plans landing on 40m-wide asteroid travelling at 28,000mph

Initial calculations showed that there was a chance that the asteroid Apophis would strike Earth at its close approach on April 13 2029. Photograph: Science Photo Library

(guardian) -- It was once considered the most dangerous object in the universe, heading for Earth with the explosive power of 84 Hiroshimas. Now an asteroid called 2000SG344, a lump of rock barely the size of a large yacht, is in the spotlight again, this time as a contender for the next giant leap for mankind.

Nasa engineers have identified the 1.1m tonne asteroid, which in 2000 was given a significant chance of slamming into Earth, as a potential landing site for astronauts, ahead of the Bush administration's plans to venture deeper into the solar system with a crewed voyage to Mars. full story