🚀 go-pugleaf

-> I caught the end of a newsclip on SKY TV this a.m. which said that
-> NASA "scientists" (probably the techs. that actually do the real
-> work) had tracked a comet on collision course with the earth - I
-> think it was due to hit us in 2016. Anyone else hear this, or was I
-> just fantasising it !

The comet that you are referring to is Periodic Comet Swift-Tuttle,
which is responsible for the Perseid meteor shower each year.  It was
recently recovered by a Japanese comet hunter.  When experts started
analyzing its position, they discovered that its perihelion had been
delayed several days as the result of nongravitational forces---jets
of gas coming off the comet had essentially acted like braking rockets.
IF this continues at the same rate (and that's a mighty big if), the
next time the comet returns in 135 years it COULD hit us.  But the
uncertainties at this point are very large.  Astronomers are obviously
watching it very closely to try to refine the orbit and their
predictions.