Scientists say the asteroid called Apophis will pass within 32,000 kilometers (20,000 miles) of Earth in 2029, and their studies of the path of the asteroid have led them to the conclusion that, although chances of hitting Earth are low, the danger can be averted for a reasonably small sum. This was the conclusion of a panel of experts who attended the 2007 American Association for Advancement of Science. NASA is expected to start a new and much more in-depth survey of possibly threatening asteroids, and researchers have new ideas about how to divert any future asteroid that proves to be on a collision course. However, forecasting of asteroid impacts is still dodgy, as the scientists learned in studying the Apophis. Scientists know that under the right conditions, the asteroid would be deflected into a new orbit that would send it back in the direction of Earth precisely seven years later. Edward Lu of NASA recently proposed a very interesting alternative to attempting to knock the asteroid off course if it seems threatening. Mr. Lu proposes that a satellite be sent to hover beside a dangerous asteroid. The, using the gravitational attraction between the two objects, the satellite could pull the asteroid gradually off course due to the gravitational attraction between the two objects. While NASA has no plans in place to test any asteroid-deflection scheme, the European Space Agency has such a project in queue.