Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG update

Phil Hogan suing TV3 over alleged defamation on Vincent Browne Tonight programme

 

MINISTER HOGAN CLAIMS REMARKS MADE ON TV BROADCAST DAMAGED HIS REPUTATION

Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan claims comments made on Tonight with Vincent Browne damaged his reputation and caused him extreme stress.

The Minister for the Environment and Local Government, Phil Hogan, is suing TV3 alleging defamation arising out of comments made by the broadcaster Vincent Browne, the High Court has heard.

The Minister claims he was defamed on the Tonight with Vincent Browne on May 20th 2013 in an exchange between Mr Browne and Fine Gael TD, now Minister for Children, Charlie Flanagan, who was a panelist on the show.

It is alleged Mr Browne described Minister Hogan as a “bigoted racist” arising out of representations made by Mr Hogan on behalf of a constituent relating to the suitability of housing for a Traveller family in a vacant council property in Co Kilkenny.

The Minister claims the remarks had meanings including he was prejudiced towards Travellers, had sought to prevent the housing of members of the Travelling community, had breached the Incitement to Hatred Act and was not suitable for his role as Minister or a TD.

He claims the allegedly defamatory remarks have damaged his reputation and caused him extreme stress. He is seeking damages and a correction order and an order directing TV3 remove the broadcast from its website.

TV3 denies the Minister’s claims on grounds including that Mr Browne’s statements consisted of an opinion honestly held by him. This opinion was based on grounds including the Minister made a number of public statements, including that he had contacted Kilkenny County Council about the matter, it claims.

In a pre-trial application yesterday, Mr Hogan, represented by Rossa Fanning BL, asked the High Court for an order amending his original statement of claim.

A hearing date for the action has yet to be fixed.

Number of deaths in Ireland by suicide fell by 32 last year on previous year

 

CSO figures indicate a significant increase of 45 to 54-year-olds taking own lives.

The charity Console said significant changes and investment in research were required to properly understand and respond to the tragedy of suicide in a timely fashion.

Suicide among young people dropped by more than 20% last year, new figures from the Central Statistics Office show.

And overall deaths by suicide fell by more than 6%. But among older people, suicides have increased by more than a quarter.

The CSO vital statistics show there were 475 suicides registered in 2013 compared with 507 in 2012.

The number of deaths by suicide in people aged 15-24 was 57 last year, down by more than 20% on 2012, when there were 74 such deaths.

But the suicide figures for people aged 45 to 54 years increased from 86 in 2012, to 108 last year. This age group had the highest number of registered suicides for both men and women, with male deaths making up 80% of the total.

People living in some areas of the country also seemed more vulnerable to suicide than others, according to the statistics.

While the average rate across the State was 10.3 per 100,000 people, Cavan had a 20.4 rate, the figure was 20 for Carlow and 19.4 for Kerry. The lowest rate of recorded suicide was nil in Leitrim and 2.1 in Waterford City. However, there may also be variations in how suicides are registered.

The national suicide prevention and bereavement charity Console said it was concerned at the rise in suicides in the older age group.

Director of services Ciarán Austin said it mirrored a rise in calls to the charity’s helpline from people in the 45-54 age category.

“In particular, we saw a huge increase in calls to our rural helpline in 2013 due to the fodder crisis,” he said.

He described the regional data as alarming and said the charity also examines deaths categorised as of undetermined intent when looking at suicide. These have shown a drop from 82 in 2012 to 65 in 2013.

“However, we need significant changes and investment in research as the lack of accurate up-to-date information is impeding our ability to understand and respond to the awful tragedy of suicide in a timely fashion,” he said.

The charity welcomed the drop in suicides in the 15-24 age group but said Ireland still had the fourth highest suicide rate in the EU in that category.

“Console is calling for a real-time register of suicide data so that resources can be targeted at areas to prevent clustering,” Mr Austin said.

The console 24-hour helpline is 1800 247 247.

In other data released by the CSO today, the number of births to teenagers continued to decline, down from 1,639 in 2012 to 1,381 last year. Since 2001, the rate of teenage births has almost halved.

Many low-fat foods ‘have same amount of calories as their regular equivalents

 

• Study shows one in ten low-fat foods has more or same calories as regular
• Manufacturers often use sugar to boost the taste of lower-fat foodstuffs
• Rotherham Institute for Obesity gives findings to European obesity congress
• Institute’s Dr Matthew Capehorn says dieters should read nutritional info 

Dieters choosing low-fat foods in the hope of cutting calories should beware: they can contain even more calories than regular foods, research has found.

A new study found that while most low-fat supermarket products contain a third fewer calories than their regular fat version, ten per cent actually have more or the same calories, mainly due to added sugars.

Obesity specialist Dr Matthew Capehorn said weight-conscious shoppers should realise that choosing low-fat products made by brands including Weight Watchers could hamper their efforts to cut calories.

Low-fat bread and other foods can contain more calories than their regular counterparts, research shows

The study by the Rotherham Institute for Obesity, where Dr Capehorn is clinical director, found that Weight Watchers wholemeal thick slice bread had more calories than any own label, regular fat equivalent, while Weight Watchers sliced cheese also had more calories than own label equivalents.

Weight Watchers wholemeal thick slice bread had more calories than any own label, regular fat equivalent.

Weight Watchers sliced cheese also had more calories than own label equivalents.

Asda natural low-fat yoghurt had more calories than Asda natural yoghurt.

Birdseye light and crunchy breaded chicken had more calories than Birdseye crispy chicken.

Sainsbury’s low fat custard had the same calories as Sainsbury’s custard.

Asda own brand low fat Italian dressing had more fat than the regular fat alternative.

It also found that Asda natural low-fat yoghurt had more calories than Asda natural yoghurt, Birdseye light and crunchy breaded chicken had more calories than Birdseye crispy chicken, and Sainsbury’s low fat custard had the same calories as Sainsbury’s custard.

Often, extra sugar was added to boost the taste of the lower-fat foods.

Dr Capehorn said: ‘Low-fat foods do appear on average to help reduce calorie intake…however appropriate food choices may still require reading nutritional information on the food labels, as ten per cent of low fat foods still have more calories, and 40 per cent have more sugar, than their regular fat counterparts.’

He began the study to establish whether low-fat versions of products were nutritionally healthier than their regular counterparts, mainly in terms of sugar and overall calories.

Of the ten most popular UK supermarkets, four provided enough information online for researchers to complete the study in November: Sainsbury’s, Asda, Waitrose and Tesco.

Fat, sugar and calorie content for any low fat food that had a directly comparable regular fat product made by the same brand were recorded.

Of 62 products that matched these criteria found in the four supermarkets, 56 low-fat products had fewer calories, and on average overall the low-fat products had 31 per cent less calories.

However, ten per cent of low fat foods analysed still had more or the same calories than the regular fat version, while 37 of the 62 products (60 per cent) had less sugar than the regular fat alternatives.

One low-fat product, Asda own brand low fat Italian dressing, had more fat than the regular fat alternative.

An example of where there was an obvious calorie saving with the lower fat version was Benecol light spread, which saved 216 kcals/100g compared with Benecol buttery spread.

Weight Watchers said it was redeveloping its wholemeal thick sliced bread after research found it had more calories than any ‘own label’ supermarket brand.

A spokesperson said: ‘Weight Watchers continues to strive to provide customers with high quality Weight Watchers Foods and we are constantly evolving our products to ensure this.

‘As such, we are redeveloping the Weight Watchers Thick Sliced Wholemeal Bread to ensure it is the best choice for our consumers.’

The findings by the Rotherham Institute for Obesity were presented at the European Congress on Obesity (ECO) in Sofia, Bulgaria, yesterday.

Lost in space, 3 decades-old probe brought back into action with crowd funding

  

Three decades after it drifted away, millions of kilometres from Earth, a vintage space probe has returned and is being revived, to be put back in service through a crowdfunded initiative by space science enthusiasts.

It is the latest chapter in the remarkable story of the ISEE-3 scientific spacecraft. It was launched nearly 36 years ago, was reconfigured into a comet-chasing platform, then sailed out of radio contact with Earth for a decade until it re-emerged in 2008, when its orbital path dragged it back towards our planet.

On Thursday, a group of scientists gathered at their own initiative at the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico re-established two-way communications with the spacecraft and started to command it to send data about the state of its onboard systems.

“SUCCESS! We are now in command of the ISEE-3 spacecraft!” the team tweeted at 4 p.m.before confirming by Thursday evening that ISEE-3 was transmitting telemetry again.

To resurrect ISEE-3, they had raised nearly $160,000 from 2,238 online donors, pored over old NASA documents and programmed software-defined radio devices to link up with a spacecraft whose communications hardware had long been retired from service on Earth.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration had agreed to let the private group – which calls itself the ISEE-3 Reboot Project – take control of its wayward spacecraft.

“We have a chance to engage a new generation of citizen scientists through this creative effort,” astrophysicist John Grunsfeld, a former astronaut who is now associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said in a communiqué announcing the agreement.

The ranks of the ISEE-3 Reboot Project include Dennis Wingo, president of the aerospace engineering company SkyCorp, and Keith Cowing, a former NASA astrobiologist.

The group has engineering students in their 20s and a space guru, 81-year-old retired NASA mission designer Bob Farquhar.

Dr. Farquhar, an expert in orbital mechanics, has been a key character in ISEE-3’s storied life.

The ISEE (International Sun-Earth Explorer) program was an international 1970′s project to study solar wind and the Earth’s magnetosphere.

The ISEE-3 spacecraft was launched on Aug. 12, 1978, in the days when disco still dominated the airwaves and the Montreal Canadiens won the Stanley Cup every spring.

It travelled to the Lagrangian 1 libration point – a stable spot where the gravitational pull of the sun is balanced by that of the Earth and its moon – about 1.5 million to 1.6 million kilometres from our planet.

By 1982, with ISEE-3 having completed its prime observation mission, Dr. Farquhar came up with a new goal for the spacecraft.

The famous Halley’s Comet, which revisits the solar system every 75 to 76 years, was expected back in 1986. The Soviet Union, the European Space Agency and Japan had readied missions to study Halley but a cash-strapped NASA had no planned flights to the comet.

Dr. Farquhar devised a way to steer ISEE-3 through a complex trajectory (on a graphic it looks like a tangle of noodles) towards another approaching comet, Giacobini-Zinner.

During an 18-minute pass in 1985, ISEE-3, which had been renamed ICE (International Cometary Explorer), crossed the Giacobini-Zinner comet’s tail, collecting data that could be used as a benchmark for the Halley missions of the following year.

After being directed upstream of Halley to gather more observations, ISEE-3 moved increasingly far away and eventually drifted out of reach for reliable radio reception. The last contact was in 1999.

Nearly a decade later, in the fall of 2008, one of the antennas of NASA’s Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex, in California’s Mojave Desert, picked up a signal from ISEE-3.

The spacecraft’s orbit was taking it closer to Earth again and now Dr. Farquhar suggested that, in the summer of 2014, when the probe would be close to the moon, it could be redirected back to its original mission, observing the sun from the Lagrangian 1 libration point.

However, in a case of history repeating itself, NASA is again going through budgetary hard times. In April, senior NASA officials decided they could not fund a revival of the ISEE-3 project. Four days later, a private initiative began.

It wasn’t the first time outsiders came to rescue a NASA deep-space project. In 1980-81, a grassroots campaign called the Viking Fund collected $100,000 to make sure NASA would have enough money to keep analyzing the data from its Viking 1 Mars lander.

This time, it was even more challenging because the project only had a month to start raising money and try to find a way to recontact ISEE-3.

Earlier this month, they reached their initial $125,000 fundraising target. Ten days ago, they started getting beacon signals from the approaching spacecraft.

Now, they will test its systems so that later this summer they will refire its thrusters, swing it by the moon and send it on to a new mission.

Donie's all Ireland daily news BLOG

A 53% majority of Irish people favour abortion on grounds of suicide

  

Poll carried out over 12 days among just under 1,000 voters

A new opinion poll shows a majority in favour of allowing abortion on grounds of suicide, although support has slipped over the past three months.

The Millward Brown poll for tomorrow’s Sunday Independent also shows an increase in support for Sinn Féin.

Carried out over 12 days running up to last Thursday among just under 1,000 voters around the country, the poll measures support for allowing abortion in a range of situations.

53% believe abortion is acceptable where the woman’s life is threatened by reason of suicide – 5% lower than in February.

72% say abortion should be allowed in cases of rape, 78% where there is a threat to life other than suicide, 69% where there is a long term threat to health, with just 28% supporting a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion for other reasons.

On party support, 32% were undecided who to vote for.

When they are excluded, support for Fine Gael is at 23%, down one point since the last Sunday Independent poll a month ago.

Labour is unchanged at 12%. Fianna Fáil is down one to 26%; Sinn Fein gains three to 19%, while Independents and others are down one to 19%.

SATISFACTION WTIH ALL THE PARTY LEADERS IS UP.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny is up one to 26%, Tanáiste Eamon GIlmore up three to 19%; Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin gains six to 34%, while Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams is up five to 28%.

Millward Brown also asked if Mr Gilmore should stay as Labour leader –  26% said he should, compared to 39% who think he should step down, and 36% who did not know.

Just 14% of voters said Labour should stay in government and continue with the Programme for Government; 30% said the party should stay, but renegotiate the Programme; 31% said they should leave while 25% said they did not know.

The Donal Walsh diaries reveal his true bravery

  

In his last hours, teenager turned to his family and joked it was like a scene from ‘Sopranos’

The parents of crusading teenager Donal Walsh have opened their hearts about their son’s final hours and given access to the notes he made in the weeks before his death.

His bereaved family have told the Irish Independent that even as their 16-year-old son was just a couple of hours from death, he woke up and saw his family around him and joked: “‘Ah lads, this is like a scene out of ‘The Sopranos’.”

Donal’s life and his selfless appeal to vulnerable young people to say no to suicide struck a cord with the entire nation.

Now his father Fionnbar has allowed the Irish Independent access to his son’s private den, where he wrote and was surrounded by friends as he battled terminal cancer before his death at his home in Blennerville, Co Kerry, on Sunday.

The wooden den is covered in uplifting slogans and heartfelt messages from his friends and loved ones.

It was here – in the place where he was most comfortable – that he wrote the inspiring lines: “I’ve climbed God’s mountains… And as much as I’d love to go around to every fool on this planet and open their eyes to the mountains that surround them in life, I can’t. But maybe if I shout from mine they’ll pay attention.” His notes include lines from songs he liked and some of his own thoughts, with the theme of a message of hope from the dying boy.

They contain the line from the band Nickleback: “Everyone has things that they hide, Everyone keeps most things inside, Everyone needs to feel loved.” The walls have been stencilled with positive statements by Donal.

“Leave no stone unturned. Leave your fears behind.

“We stand together in line. No regrets in mind.” His writings show a boy who loved life and who encouraged others to live life to the full.

Fionnbar told the Irish Independent of Donal’s final moments, when his mother Elma noticed a slight change in his breathing.

She called his father and sister Elma to Donal’s side. His Uncle Brian just made it up the stairs in time. They were all there when Donal drew his last breath.

Fionnbar spoke movingly of his son’s final conversation with parish priest Fr Padraig Walsh.

“What’s on the other side, Father?” he asked.

“I don’t know Donal, but it’ll be a far better place with you in it.’ “Are you afraid?” asked Fr Padraig.

“I’m not Father, but I’m nervous,” he replied.

Battles

Donal’s parents also revealed the private battles he faced as he campaigned to bring his message of hope to the public.

He had to be brought by wheelchair to the RTE studios to take part in ‘The Saturday Night Show’ with Brendan O’Connor and it took an extraordinary physical effort to make the 400-mile round trip to Dublin from his home in Blennerville, near Tralee in Co Kerry.

The television appearance moved a nation to tears of sadness, hope and admiration. An ambulance was on standby in case Donal took a turn.

A proposed visit to the President, Michael D Higgins, had to be cancelled on medical advice, amid fears a trip to Dublin could mean his last wish of dying at home in Blennerville would not have come true.

Mrs Walsh also revealed how they told him of the seriousness of his illness.

“He was too intelligent to hide the truth from,” said his mother Elma.

“He clammed up on us once when we held back. It was then we decided to tell him he had very little time.

“Donal forecast his death almost to the day.”

Low-fat foods just giving some Irish people a ‘licence to overeat’

  

CONSUMERS IN IRELAND VIEW FOODS MARKETED AS LOW FAT OR HEALTHY AS A LICENCE TO OVEREAT.

Research by all-Ireland nutritional awareness body Safefood found Irish people eat up to 71pc more than the recommended portion of “healthy” foodstuffs and they’ll also eat far more of it than the standard product.

For example, with a lower fat coleslaw they’ll eat as much as 126g of it compared with just 74g of a luxury brand. The same applied to breakfast cereal – with women choosing larger portions of Special K than Frosties, researchers found. This means buying “healthier” products could actually lead to weight gain over time, Safefood said.

Lead researcher Professor Barbara Livingstone, of the University of Ulster, said consumers where being influenced by the “health halo” of some products.

“They see them as representing the less guilty option and so eat more. Further education on what is a healthy portion size is warranted to overcome these misconceptions,” she said.

The research, which was carried out among 180 Irish adults and published in the ‘International Journal of Obesity’, found that people selected portion sizes that were between 28pc and 71pc larger than what was recommended in five out of six cases.

Safefood’s Dr Cliodhna Foley-Nolan said there had been a huge increase in the number of foods with nutrition and health claims over the past 20 years but the population was still getting fatter.

“The research shows that these foods are viewed by some consumers as a licence to overeat,” Dr Foley-Nolan added.

“However, in the case of many products, the fat that is removed in the ‘healthier’ product is replaced by other ingredients, such as sugar, and the calorie savings are small.”

Rory McIlroy to set up his own management company

  

In a spectacular mid-season move, Rory McIlroy is planning to leave Horizon Sports and set up his own management company, made up of some friends, family and close confidants.

McIlroy’s father Gerry is expected to play a prominent role in the new operation. Just over 18 months ago, McIlroy, one of world sport’s hottest properties, stunned golf by quitting the giant International Sports Management, run by Chubby Chandler, and joining Horizon, a Dublin firm with global ambitions.

McIlroy’s management team at Horizon have been taken aback by this latest development in the ever-eventful career of Irish golf’s charismatic world No 2. However, they are remaining tight-lipped pending further discussions with McIlroy (above), whose management contract at Horizon has a number of years to run.

Professional golf circles have been rife with speculation about McIlroy’s plans to set up his own management structure, but Horizon boss Conor Ridge declined to comment on the matter or answer any questions.

“We simply do not comment on industry rumours or speculation,” he insisted. “Horizon Sports Management always has and always will give first priority to the confidentiality of its clients.”

When approached by reporters at The Players Championship in Florida last week, McIlroy said he was still with Horizon and firmly dismissed any further questions on the matter. He could not be contacted yesterday.

Suggestions that McIlroy might team up with Tiger Woods and his long-standing business manager Mark Steinberg have been firmly dismissed by insiders.

So, too, is talk of the Holywood native joining one of the major sports agencies like Legardere, who have his girlfriend Caroline Wozniacki on their books, or IMG.

Instead, authoritative sources reveal the 24-year-old Irishman is keen to follow Tiger’s example and that set by other sports megastars like Roger Federer in tennis and football’s Lionel Messi by choosing to be managed by their closest lieutenants – family and friends.

If Tiger was McIlroy’s idol growing up, he aspires to be like Federer, anotherNike icon, who has become an international symbol of grace and good taste.

In a fascinating recent article in the ‘New York Times’ about the young Ulsterman’s determination to play a proactive role in building his brand image, Karen Crouse wrote: “McIlroy said he discussed the business side of sports management with Federer over dinner in December, while in Brazil to watch Wozniacki.”

Role model: “He’s a role model, someone I can pattern myself after,” McIlroy told her. Interestingly, Federer and his long-standing agent Tony Godsick both left IMG last summer and set up on their own.

In Crouse’s article, she aptly described Horizon as a “boutique” company with just 12 employees, which gave McIlroy the final call in his endorsement deals and every other element of his career.

“He’s the boss,” Ridge was quoted as saying.

McIlroy’s stock soared as he rose to world No 1 on the back of a second Major title and four other victories last year, leading to three major new global endorsement contracts already in 2013, with Bose, Omega and, of course, Nike, which is reportedly worth $20m-plus a year.

Ridge and the high-powered lawyers and business advisers that consult for Horizon did the spadework on these lucrative deals, but McIlroy did far more than merely sign on the dotted line. He carefully vets each of the many commercial suitors that come to his door.

Meanwhile, McIlroy’s decision to switch all 14 of his golf clubs to Nike in one swoosh at the start of the season (Tiger took 10 years to put a full set of Nikes in his bag) gives further indication of the decisive, forceful nature which has helped make McIlroy the man and golfer he is today.

Perhaps the greatest example thus far of McIlroy’s determination to control his own destiny came in October 2011, when the young Ulsterman told Chandler, his agent, manager, mentor and friend during his first four years as a professional, that he’d decided to quit ISM.

At that time, he publicly expressed his thanks to Chandler and his company for “the very important role they played in my success to date”.

“I made great progress under their management and for that I will always be grateful,” said McIlroy, who had won the US Open, his first Major title, the previous June.

Yet in an interview with Golf.com before the 2012 US Masters, McIlroy intimated that he “felt like the path I was going down (at ISM) wasn’t the path I wanted to go down.” He cited the decision not to take out his US Tour card in 2010 as an example.

By joining his close friend Graeme McDowell on the books at Horizon, McIlroy entered a totally different environment. Chandler is revered by long-standing clients like Darren Clarke and Lee Westwood for doing business the old-fashioned way … at Chubby’s firm, a friendly handshake was the only contract they wanted.

Horizon are the polar opposite. Every ‘i’ is dotted and ‘t’ crossed in the contracts drawn up for their clients, with financial and legal matters placed in the hands of internationally respected experts. The company is known for its personal touch and the endless lengths its goes to for the welfare of its clients.

Two formidable examples are Philip Barker, of Arena Wealth, and Oliver Hunt of Onside Law – both installed by Ridge to oversee McIlroy’s global financial and legal affairs.

Arena are a London firm which evolved from IMG’s fund services team. In an anonymous testimony on their website, one of Barker’s golf clients, described as a ‘multiple Major-winner’, writes: “Arena manage all my global financial affairs, from paying my caddie to managing my investments.”

For legal matters, McIlroy has the support of Hunt, the golf specialist at Onside Law, an international agency which caters for the sport, fashion and entertainment industries and has advised each of the previous four European Ryder Cup captains. Hunt, who left IMG to form his niche company, worked closely with Ridge on the details of the deal with Nike and was invited by Horizon and McIlroy to join them as a guest at last month’s US Masters.

In-house, Horizon have a team of six people set aside to handle McIlroy’s day-to-day affairs, but ironically, by encouraging him to forge a close personal relationship with such distinguished extramural experts, Horizon has actually built a structure for McIlroy which makes it easier for him to move on.

The comprehensive service offered by Horizon belies the blase suggestions by critics across the Irish Sea, who forecast in the wake of McIlroy’s departure from ISM that the Dublin firm would be out of its depth in handling one of the greatest golfing talents of all time.

Changed: McIlroy’s arrival inevitably affected the dynamic of the company. Michael Hoey, who along with Gareth Maybin left Horizon last year, said: “with Rory now on board and playing more in the States their management has changed and altered.”

Yet the search for reasons for McIlroy’s stunning decision to head over the Horizon at the busiest part of his season unearths no major disasters or obvious causes for him to walk.

For sure, the much-publicised debacle at the Honda – where McIlroy walked off on the ninth hole of a nightmarish second round – caught them on the hop. Issuing a statement blaming wisdom-tooth pain 45 minutes after the player had told reporters he was not in the right place mentally to compete made a drama out of a crisis.

The Horizon representative on duty at the Honda Classic is expected to be one of McIlroy’s personal assistants in the new management structure, suggesting the incident didn’t play a big part in the decision process.

That the world No 2 had such a sketchy tournament schedule at the start of this season might sometimes be ascribed to his management.

Yet, as with much else in McIlroy’s case, he is unquestionably the master in his own domain.

Massive asteroid 1998 QE2 to fly by Earth on May 31

  

It’s 1.7 miles long. Its surface is covered in a sticky black substance similar to the gunk at the bottom of a barbecue. If it impacted Earth it would probably result in global extinction. Good thing it is just making a flyby.

Asteroid 1998 QE2 will make its closest pass to Earth on May 31 at 1:59 p.m. PDT.

Scientists are not sure where this unusually large space rock, which was discovered 15 years ago, originated from. But the mysterious sooty substance on its surface could indicate it may be the result of a comet that flew too close to the sun, said Amy Mainzer, who tracks near-Earth objects at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge. It might also have leaked out of the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, she said.

We will know more after the asteroid zips closer to Earth and scientists using the Deep Space Network antenna in Goldstone, Calif., and the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico can get a better look at it. Astronomers at both observatories plan to track it closely from May 30 to June 9, according to a JPL release.

At its closest approach the asteroid will still be 3.6 million miles from our planet (about 15 times the distance between the Earth and the moon), but it will be close enough for these powerful radar antennas to see features as small as 12 feet across.

“With radar we can transform an object from a point of light into a small world with its own characteristics,” Lance Benner, JPL’s principal investigator for Goldstone radar observations, said in a statement.

There is no chance that asteroid 1998 QE2 could collide with Earth this go-around, and its next close approach won’t be until 2119.

Still, Mainzer said the size of the asteroid, and its potential for mass destruction, should remind us that there are some scary things flying around in space.

“This is a really big asteroid, similar in size to the one that killed off the dinosaurs, and it’s getting very close to us,” she said. “Fortunately we’ve been tracking its orbit very carefully so we know with great certainty it won’t hit us.

“We don’t need to panic, but we do need to pay attention,” she said.