[BenLurkin]

Diagram showing the orbit of 2014 KH39. Yellow shows the portion of its orbit above the plane of Earth’s orbit (grey disk); blue is below the plane. When farthest, the asteroid travels beyond Mars into the asteroid belt. It passes closest to Earth around 3 p.m. CDT June 3. Credit: IAU Minor Planet Center

The chart shows the cumulative known total of near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) vs. time. The blue area shows all NEAs while the red shows those roughly 1 km and larger. Thanks to many ground-based surveys underway as well as space probes like the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), discovery totals have ramped up in recent years. There are probably millions of NEOs smaller than 140 meters waiting to be discovered. Credit: NASA

Most near-Earth asteroids fall into three classes named after the first asteroid discovered in that class. Apollo and Aten asteroids cross Earth’s orbit; Amors orbit just beyond Earth but cross Mars’ orbit. Credit: Wikipedia

[humblegunner]

Bob King on

So.. he's Klingon that can't type?

[Verginius Rufus]

Notice how the number of NEAs suddenly takes off about the time George W. Bush became President? For once something clearly is Bush's fault.

Not that Obama has fixed the problem...

[Verginius Rufus]

Notice how the number of NEAs suddenly takes off about the time George W. Bush became President? For once something clearly is Bush's fault.

Not that Obama has fixed the problem...

[Darksheare]

Not my fault.

[SampleMan]

Makes me wonder, have we ever observed a large strike on the moon? It seems that given the history of the Earth, we should have observed a sizeable strike on the moon sometime in the last 2500 years.

[MrsEmmaPeel]

too faint to spot in amateur telescopes

Oy! Settle on! Amateur telescopes can be even bigger than a massive 20 inch aperture. Amateur astronomers are no slouchers. For example: Variable Star Watch is largely due to the work of Amateur astronomers. The article probably meant to say that if you bought a small budget telescope at Walmart, you won't see the asteroid.