Actually, there are two recently discovered asteroids that are going to pass close to Earth on Wednesday, 9/8/2010. Both discovered on 9/5/2010 by astronomer Andrea Boattini in Arizona, they are expected to fly closer to earth then the Moon.
two asteroids have a date within earth's orbit
2010 RX30, estimated at 32 - 65 feet in diameter, will pass within 154,000 miles of Earth at 4:51 CST* am on Wednesday, with a 1 in 1000 chance of smashing into earth. Then, 12 hours later at 4:12 CST pm on 9/8, the 23 ft across 2010 RF12 will fly even closer, within 47,845 miles, stands a 1 in 50 chance of smashing into our planet.
Both are certainly small enough that there is little risk to the planet at all. They should just burn up in the atmosphere. It's a little weird though. Even after watching the mesmerizing Youtube video time lapse of asteroid discoveries made in the last 30 years, and seeing just how teeming our system is with asteroids, it still seems a little too cosmically convenient.
I wouldn't be surprised if this was another assassination attempt on Radivoke Lajic, the Bosnian man whose home has been hit six times by meteorites.
"I am obviously being targeted by extraterrestrials," Lajic said. "I don't know what I have done to annoy them but there is no other explanation that makes sense. The chance of being hit by a meteorite is so small that getting hit six times has to be deliberate."
Yeah, that is highly improbable. That's kind of like randomly discovering that two asteroids on separate trajectories were going to pass within the Moon's orbit of the planet Earth within 12 hours of each other. Watch out, Lajic.
*cuz that's my damned time zone.
