An asteroid passed 'near' the Earth today. Newscasters made a lot about the dire circumstances of what could have happened if it had hit us while at the same time assuring their viewers that it wouldn't hit. In truth, there are quite a few objects that come close to the Earth all of the time. Some are in regular orbits so we know when to expect them again. Some are rogue which means they were probably were perturbed from their regular orbit or are visitors from outside of our solar system. Almost all of them are small - though the one today was a little more than half a mile wide. (The asteroid that is believed to have killed the dinosaurs was 6 to 50 miles wide.) What I found interesting is most of the asteroids coming close to the Earth lately have been discovered by the telescopes on Mt. Lemmon in Arizona. Hadn't realized they were specializing in looking for them. Kinda nice to know someone is watching.
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