Whisky Tango Foxtrot Over #992

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Moscow astrologist takes NASA to court
MOSCOW, July 4 (RIA Novosti) - Moscow's Presnensky Court has postponed until July 28a suit filed by Moscow astrologist Marina Bai against NASA over the Deep Impact project, Bai's lawyer said Monday.

"The trial has been postponed, as a NASA official failed to turn up at court," said Alexander Molokhov.

Bai demanded that the project - which culminated on Monday when a NASA probe collided with the Tempel 1 comet - be cancelled as an affront to her spiritual values, and because it upset the natural balance in the universe.

NASA experts said the project aimed to determine the composition of the comet and to prepare measures in case of a comet or an asteroid threatening Earth.

Experts deny any risk that the crash could alter the comet's trajectory and make it crash into the Earth. The comet weighs up to 250 billion metric tons, so the probe, which weighs 350 kg, was unlikely to cause significant orbital change.

"It was like mosquito hitting a 747," said Professor Iwan Williams from University of London, according to the BBC.

Equally absurd, said scientists, are fears that the parts of the comet disturbed by the blast will pollute the atmosphere, prevent solar rays from reaching the Earth, and cause eternal winter. Such speculation is complete nonsense, said Alexander Yakushev, a researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences' Space Research Institute.