Asteroid strike in Russia

For the second time in 120 years, a large asteroid exploded in the atmosphere above Russia. While the first one, the Tunguska event, happened in 1908, this one happened this morning and injured 1,000 people. And we didn't see it coming...

It was a once in a decade event, Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist at the American Museum of Natural History, told TODAY on Friday, saying the impact was the physics equivalent of hitting a brick wall.

“When you hit a brick wall, you basically explode, and that’s what happened here, and it exploded in midair,” Tyson said. "There have never been any cases of meteorites breaking up at such a low level over Russia before," Yuri Burenko, head of the Chelyabinsk branch of the Emergencies Ministry, told Reuters.

This comes hours before the 150-foot Asteroid 2012 DA14 gives Earth a buzz cut... coming in lower than our communications satellites... but missing the planet. While the two events aren't connected, it does give the public and little bit of a wake up call when it oomes to asteroids. If the DA14 were to hit, it would be like someone dropped a 2.5 megaton bomb.

(If you want to learn more about asteroids...)

More large rocks headed toward our planet

Gosh, isn't this kind of old? There are countless rocks floating through space and some of them just so happen to occasionally hit Earth.

Oh wait, it could cause the end of our species? Well perhaps we should spend a little more money on lasers or tractor beams or something. So it was rather strange that nobody really talked about a 100-foot asteroid that passed between the Earth and Moon this morning.

While it wouldn't has spelled the end of human kind if that rock did find its way through the atmosphere... say over a large city... it could have done some serious damage. Good thing we're spending money on professional sports stadiums instead of a space program that could ward off these dangerous problems.

And stay tuned folks, there is a three-mile (read: serious problems for planet Earth) rock that was pass within four million miles of the planet. Now that seems like a long ways, but considered the cosmic scale (HUGE) and whats at stake (HUMANKIND), that's pretty darn close. Throw in the Mayan prophecies and it's all a bit spooky.

You'd think that maybe it would be something people should pay attention to but alas, the story on asteroids are buried among the topics on Google News. Apparently it isn't that big of deal. I guess people are just assuming we're going to pull of some Armageddon-like miracle (even though the space shuttle is designed for low-earth orbit).

It's just pathetic that we only made it to the moon because we wanted to beat the Russians. Forget progress and actual benefits for the human race, as soon as space became somewhat bland the public lost interest. If you want to hear about great accomplishments by America in space, you have to read books now.

All we really have to show is the occasional astronaut floating around in low-earth orbit in a space station. Daring Missions like the Mars Rover are still looked at sideways by the public as wastes of money even though they further the exploration of our neighbor planet.

Well, at least we have Snooki...

The Earth is going to end

Oh no!!! You haven't heard this one before, there is a large rock headed for the Planet Earth and it will pass very, very close to our planet.

To avert a possible catastrophe – this time set for February 2013 – scientists suggest confronting asteroid 2012 DA14 with either paint or big guns. The stickler is that time has long run out to build a spaceship to carry out the operation.

NASA's data shows the 60-meter asteroid, spotted by Spanish stargazers in February, will whistle by Earth in 11 months. Its trajectory will bring it within a hair’s breadth of our planet, raising fears of a possible collision.

The asteroid, known as DA14, will pass by our planet in February 2013 at a distance of under 27,000 km (16,700 miles). This is closer than the geosynchronous orbit of some satellites.

While the truth is we don't know if the thing is going to even hit the Earth - there's a serious problem we're going to have to contend with... time. It would take us puny humans a couple years to build a spaceship capable of handling this rock. Now experts think that it could either burn up in our atmosphere or if it were to hit it would be like somebody set off a thermo-nuclear bomb (not an earth or human civilization killer) - but still nobody wants to play musical chairs with physics. An idea has come up with a very interesting way to handle this rock...

A spaceship is needed, experts agree. It could shoot the rock down or just crash into it, either breaking the asteroid into debris or throwing it off course.

“We could paint it,” says NASA expert David Dunham.

Paint would affect the asteroid’s ability to reflect sunlight, changing its temperature and altering its spin. The asteroid would stalk off its current course, but this could also make the boulder even more dangerous when it comes back in 2056, Aleksandr Devaytkin, the head of the observatory in Russia’s Pulkovo, told Izvestia.

Yeah not quite Armageddon hero stuff, just astronauts with spray cans. While this story is just a bit sensationalized ... there's no real proof that this thing is going to hit the Earth... it's kind of a scary thought because the United States doesn't have an effective space vehicle to use. Whoopsie.

Armageddon with a slightly different ending

Two asteroids came closer than the moon and near-missed the earth today, luckily we have Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck and nobody wants to mess with those guys and their awesome asteroid-butt-kicking ability. They didn't hit the Earth, because we're still here although their size probably wasn't big enough to be a planet killer so to speak. But did anyone notice? I mean was their a big media watch about it? I feel like I should be better informed about large bodies floating around in space.

What gets me though is that scientists say that asteroid near misses are quite common. Like it happens all the time. Big Asteroids. Floating around. Near our little planet with said ginger on it.

Oh swell.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be digging a large hole beneath my apartment for me and Elijah Wood when the big asteroid finally does hit.

We're screwed thanks to asteroids

Okay so that was an exaggeration, but a small asteroid is expected to burn up in the earth's atmosphere...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A small asteroid was headed for a fiery but harmless dive into Earth's atmosphere early Tuesday morning over Africa, astronomers said in a first of its kind advance warning.

Harvard scientists announced late Monday afternoon that the asteroid 2008 TC3 would burn up in the sky, making a fireball potentially visible to people in northern Africa. Measuring between 3 feet and 15 feet in diameter, the rock was expected to enter Earth's atmosphere above Sudan at 10:46 p.m. EDT Monday, just before dawn in Africa.

Harvard astronomer Tim Spahr said the asteroid was so small it wouldn't reach the ground before burning up and wouldn't hurt anyone, but the fireball should be seen heading from west to east."It's the size of Spud Webb, Mr. President."

I'm glad we have an early warning system to find out when we're really screwed.