On April 3, 2011 there were 1215 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
| Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Mag. | Size |
| 2011 FA23 | Apr 1 | 2.1 LD | -- | 7 m |
| 2011 FT9 | Apr 1 | 7.5 LD | -- | 25 m |
| 2011 FT29 | Apr 7 | 6.2 LD | -- | 36 m |
| 2011 GE | Apr 12 | 4.7 LD | -- | 28 m |
| 2002 DB4 | Apr 15 | 62.5 LD | -- | 2.2 km |
| 2008 UC202 | Apr 27 | 8.9 LD | -- | 10 m |
| 2009 UK20 | May 2 | 8.6 LD | -- | 23 m |
| 2008 FU6 | May 5 | 75.5 LD | -- | 1.2 km |
| 2003 YT1 | May 5 | 65.3 LD | -- | 2.5 km |
| 2002 JC | Jun 1 | 57.5 LD | -- | 1.6 km |
| 2009 BD | Jun 2 | 0.9 LD | -- | 9 m |
| 2002 JB9 | Jun 11 | 71.5 LD | -- | 3.2 km |
| 2001 VH75 | Jun 12 | 42.2 LD | -- | 1.1 km |
| 2004 LO2 | Jun 15 | 9.9 LD | -- | 48 m |
| 2001 QP181 | Jul 2 | 35.1 LD | -- | 1.1 km |
| 2003 YS117 | Jul 14 | 73.9 LD | -- | 1.0 km |
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When we look up into the sky we see some of the planets some of the time, the moon, the sun and if the sky is clear and pollution-free maybe a meteor shower or a comet.
What we don't see with the naked eye are the potentially hazardous asteroids that move around space, one or more of which we may someday find is on a collision course with the earth.
What could the "impact" of an asteroid (a meteor once it enters earth's atmosphere) crash-landing on earth potentially be? Anything from nothing as it burns up entering the atmosphere to what has been speculated to be an earth changing event called K-T.
The K-T event has been speculated to be the impact of a meteor on the Yucatan Peninsula, so large it created a change in weather that brought on the Ice Age and the extinction of the dinosaurs.
The bottom line is that whatever happens in this spacial arena is beyond our control so it is not worth the time to worry about it. It is a subject that fits in very well with the Serenity Prayer that says:
"God, Give us the grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed, Courage
to change the things which should be changed,
And the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other."
That said, it is definitely a very interesting topic. The video below is of a meteor in the sky over South Africa in 2009.
CYA
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