[BenLurkin]

If you hear annolying audio from an ad you can't see...look ALL the way down at the bottom on the right.

[BenLurkin]

Darn thing is on a trajectory right for Mecca but then veers off. Sheesh.

[Mouton]

Any chance we can push it for a landing say at N38 53.7468 W77 2.19

[Stingray]

And if - by some off chance - it happens to hit Earth, you can count on Democrats to do three things:

1. Blame Bush
2. Call for tighter emissions on greenhouse gasses (cause you know global warming will have caused it, right?)
3. And call for more social spending for women and children because they are always “hit hardest” in times of national tragedy.

[stboz]

Does this thing have any “camp followers?” Any tag alongs that might be “unexpected?”

[RegulatorCountry]

All sorts of vivid and interesting astronomical phenomena on the slate for 2013, aren’t there?

One more near-Earth asteroid after this and two comets, one of which is projected to be as bright as the moon, visible in broad daylight.

I guess we’ll see if the ancient dread has any basis, now won’t we, lol?

[Vaquero]

Cool POV. Looks like its going to hit Antarctica. Then slips past the planet.

[Focault's Pendulum]

OK. That pretty much creeped me out.

[Mr. Jeeves]

'No Earth impact is possible,' said Donald Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object program at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Read "Lucifer's Hammer" - all of Niven and Pournelle's fictional astrophysicists were telling the media the exact same thing.

[plain talk]

I spent a few cycles studying this one. I understand they have high confidence level it won’t hit etc. Let’s assume they know what they are talking about. What puzzles me is they just discovered this thing last February and the orbit almost mirrors ours and comes close twice a year. How did they miss this asteroid in the past?

[bigheadfred]

Ban assault asteroids!

[central_va]

'No Earth impact is possible

Now I am worried....

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Then there is the Discovery channel video of a giant asteroid hitting the Earth, that some wit dubbed with the music Yakkity Sax. (1:53 in length)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xB7IHNnyJ00

[nanetteclaret]

***its trajectory will take it inside the orbit of communications and weather satellites***

Could this cause an EMP problem? Or mess up satellite communications or throw them off orbit?

[Patriot Babe]

Sooooo what are the odds it hit Washington D.C. or the White Hut?

[pricilla]

"No Earth impact is possible"

Unless of course,someone put the decimal point in the wrong place....a common mistake among scientists..

[calex59]

'No Earth impact is possible,' said Donald Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object program at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Yeah, and the Titanic couldn't sink either. I worry when scientists make absolute statements such as this.

[mikrofon]

[Mad Dawgg]

"Nasa video shows just how close asteroid will come to hitting Earth"

Sooo "Hot Fudge Sundae" will be next Friday instead of the expected Tuesday...

(Ten geek points for anyone who gets the obscure literary reference.)

[dfwgator]

[clearcarbon]

"'We don't have all the money in the world to do this kind of work' for tracking and potentially deflecting asteroids, said Lindley Johnson, an executive with the Near-Earth Object observations program in Washington."

Deflect? Deflect it with what? Spitballs?