As many of you know, tomorrow, February 15, Asteroid 2012 dDA14 (50 meters across) will pass very close to Earth. So close indeed that it will be within the orbit of geosynchronous satellites, at about 27,000 kilometers (17,000 miles).
The odds of hitting Earth are zero, this time and for the next few years when it comes back (next time it will pass much further away, but it shows us the need for governments to fund the means to detect and deflect this dangers. We have the technology. What we need is the political will.
Here is a very nice animation of what the near-miss will look like.
Painting of asteroid 2013 DA14 by David Hardy (www.astroart.org)
Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer has an excellent write-up explaining all of this. Go read it for all the details!
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