Asteroid....woooo that was close.

[HURRICANEBOB]

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

First link is the animation : JPL Small-Body Database Browser 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. http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/ca/

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 (2012 DA14) 2013-Feb-15 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 7.78 kilometers per SECOND, 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? :-)

[kygorski]

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.