Apr 19, 2017 - Science

Huge asteroid to pass close to Earth

A 2000-foot-asteroid will fly past Earth Wednesday night at the closest distance it has come in the past 400 years, according to NASA. The asteroid, known as 2014 JO25, will pass at a distance of 1.1 million miles — about 4.6 times the distance from Earth to moon — and will be its closest approach for at least the next 500 years.

How to see it: The asteroid will approach Earth from the direction of the sun, and will become visible for one or two nights after April 19.

Don't freak out: NASA said there is no chance the asteroid will collide with Earth.

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Dave Lawler
34 mins ago - World

The U.K. was the most-prepared country for a pandemic — until it wasn't

Photo: Julian Simmonds/WPA Pool/Getty Images

One country was easily the best-prepared in the world to respond quickly to and mitigate the spread of an epidemic, according to the 2019 Global Health Security Index: Great Britain.

Reality check: When the coronavirus struck, the U.K. had arguably one of the least effective responses among rich countries, despite decades of preparation for just such an event. Its death toll ranks behind only the U.S. and Brazil.

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Kia Kokalitcheva, Sara Fischer
1 hour ago - Economy & Business

Competitors ready to pounce on TikTok bans

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

Growing security and privacy concerns over Chinese-owned short-video app TikTok have given a lift to alternatives like Byte and Dubsmash, which have seen spikes in downloads from smartphone users recently, according to data from SensorTower.

Why it matters: If TikTok's meteoric rise in popularity among U.S. youth gets slowed by rising tensions with China, or ended by a threatened ban by the Trump administration, American teens will still have to get their hits of meme-laden video somewhere.

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Ina Fried
1 hour ago - Technology

U.S. pushes homegrown drone industry amid China battle

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

Alarmed at the prospect of relying on Chinese-made drones for public safety and monitoring critical industries, U.S. investors and the federal government are newly backing a domestic drone industry of hardware and software companies.

The big picture: The moves come as the industry continues to be led by DJI, a Chinese hardware maker — and as concerns grow both in China and the U.S. about reliance on the other country's technology.

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