Something that might be fun to watch for you astronomy buffs

Large Asteroid to Buzz Earth Tonight—Watch It Live: Find out how to see space rock 2012 LZ1 swing by our planet

An asteroid the size of a city block will buzz Earth tonight, and the flyby will be streamed around the world via a live online broadcast.

I really debated whether or not to link to this story with this source

not because it is controversial, or because it is lacking in information (indeed, it's quite a bit ind depth over some of the others out there).

No, it was because of an ad that popped up on the screen hawking a pizza slicer in the shape of the USS Enterprise on Space.com.

Huge Asteroid Vesta Actually an Ancient Protoplanet

But I decided there were some other tacky items out there on MSNBC and other outlets, to (the New York Times had an ad for a website touting the end was near). But the pizza cutter even clicked on my geek meter--and I AM a geek, and a Trek fan and a gizmo/gadget fan--as being just too tacky for words. If it were just on the sidebar ad, it wouldn't have really caught my attention, as I'm rather ad blind. But...it popped up in the centre with a bit of script. If it had been on a sci-fi site itself I wouldn't have given it a second thought, either. It was that I was looking for space news, and it was a little unexpected, although of course they are right that people interested in science and science fiction overlap a great deal. Anyway, that was my gut reaction. I decided to include the story for its own merits. And if you cannot live without a $30 Enterprise pizza slicer, you're in luck....(they also have Han Solo in carbonite ice trays as well.)

Anyway, the article itself is interesting.

We have a tag-along

Trojan asteroid tags along on Earth's orbit: The asteroid in the Earth's orbit around the sun has been hiding from view, mostly overhead during daylight, study finds

Turns out the moon's not the Earth's only traveling companion. Space scientists have discovered an asteroid that's been following our fair planet for thousands of years, at least — and there may be many more where it came from, according to a recent study.

This one is at too eccentric an orbit to visit properly, but if others are found, they may be candidates for a NASA probe or mission.

Great opportunity for science

NASA probe arrives at ancient asteroid
The probe is the Dawn probe, which is set to go into orbit around the asteroid Vesta, named after the Roman Goddess of the hearth (from where we got vestal virgins.) Apparently the asteroid, the size of Arizona, is the source of 5% of meteorites that are found on Earth.

I doubt they'll need to in this case, but it would good to have the capability

Russia Plans to Save Earth From Rogue Asteroid; ‘No Nuclear Explosions,’ Space Chief Promises (Updated

This is a continuation of the Apophis saga. Hopefully NASA is correct and there is a slim chance the asteroid will hit the Earth, but if not, the Russians are prepared to work on a solution. Still, there's a lot of money and need for international cooperation involved.

What will you be doing on April 13, 2029?

Well, assuming I'm alive (I'll just have turned 62, my mother's current age), I'll probably be monitoring the shave that the asteroid Apophis is due to make near our planet. Once thought to be fairly likely to hit the planet, it is now thought to have a 1 in 250,000 chance, much less, but still not (pardon the pun) astronomical. It is thought that it will pass as close as 18,300 miles above the Earth's surface, and this Wired.com story includes a video from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Tracy's people) that animates what they think will happen:

It should be a wild ride in terms of world news updates that day.

Apophis is named for the monster of chaos and darkness in Aegyptian mythology that attacked Ra, the Sun, in His trip through the Underworld at night. It was seen as a snake or crocodile, and was sometimes known as the Serpent of the Nile. Apophis is the Greek term for the creature; the Aegyptian name has been reconstructed as Apep. Apophis was everything that opposed Ma'at, that which was orderly and good. In Aegyptian religion, like Judaism, chaos was seen as the ultimate evil and the bringing of order part of the very act of creation. How fitting that an asteroid of this name would be seen as Earth's opposer.