WEST LAFAYETTE — A Purdue University doctoral student who recently completed an eight-month stay in a domed habitat says the hardest part was the isolation and the lack of “surprises and new things.”

An asteroid, designated 2004 BL86 by NASA, will pass by the Earth safely today. From the asteroid’s reflected brightness, astronomers estimate it to be about a third of a mile in size. The flyby will be the closest of any known asteroid this large until 2027. At the time of it’s closest approach, it will …read more.