Science editor Alan Boyle's blog: NASA's top expert on near-Earth objects says that new telescope systems are gradually getting a handle on potentially threatening asteroids.

MSN: Big sunspot unleashes an intense solar flare

However, many more of these threatening asteroids will surely be found in coming years (indeed, within the past two months, a newly discovered object 1km across caused a brief flurry, until its orbit was properly calculated).

ECONOMIST: The American Association for the Advancement of Science