Say hello to 2013 YP139 — a newly discovered 0.4 mile (650 meter) wide asteroid spotted by NASA's recently re-started NEOWISE spacecraft. Preliminary calculations show it'll come within 300,000 miles from Earth — thus qualifying it as a potential headache.
Mike Hankey of the American Meteor Society has put together a map showing the extent to which Friday’s dramatic meteor was seen along the U.S. East Coast. The boulder-sized fireball, which got as bright as the full moon, was seen all the way from South Carolina to Maine.
A 2005 congressional mandate requires NASA to record 90% of the 20,000+ near Earth objects (NEOs) sized 140+ meters in diameter. NASA has until 2020 to catalog them but lacks time and funding. Ah, the politics of doomsday prevention.