Asteroid....woooo that was close.

Check this Nasa animation out. It shows an asteroid that gets pretty close to earth 15 Feb 2013.

First link is the animation : [url=http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=2012]JPL Small-Body Database Browser[/url] DA14;orb=1
Second link is a chart of all the space junk flying around out there, look at the UPCOMING CLOSE APPROACHES TO EARTH , second chart, and look at the CA Distance* (LD) for (2012 DA14) 2013-Feb-15 a little over 1/2 way down. [url]http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/ca/[/url]

In astronomy, a lunar distance (LD) is a measurement of the distance from the Earth to the Moon. The average distance from Earth to the Moon is 384,400 km (238,900 mi).[1] The actual distance varies over the course of the orbit of the moon, from 356,700 km (221,600 mi) at the perigee and 406,300 km (252,500 mi) at apogee.

Good ole [I][/I][B](2012 DA14) 2013-Feb-15 [/B]gets to within 0.09 of a lunar distance, about 34,596 km or
21,501 miles from earth. It will be traveling according to the chart at [B]7.78 kilometers per SECOND[/B], translated to Miles Per Hour, it will be hooking along at some 17,406 miles per hour.

So at only 21,501 miles from earth, and at a speed of 17,406 miles per hour, it would take only 74 minutes to close the distance to earth/us if NASA is off by just a little.

But relax, its only 114 feet to 259 feet, estimated diameter size. Remember an NFL football field is 160 feet wide and is 300 feet long, not including the end-zones. So this flying rock is just a little smaller than a football field.

Having read this, are you still worried about the FISCAL CLIFF? :-)

They think a space collision caused the demise of the dinosauers, and the pictures of that space rock that hit siberia a long time ago bear some thinking about. BUT we still have Bruce Willis, or his stand in T Cruise to save us.