It was only last week that we even discovered the existence of asteroid 2014 HL129. Usually, the discovery of a rock floating about in space wouldn't be remarkable on its own, but ol' HL129 just happened to be closing in on Earth when we noticed it. By Saturday morning, the bus-sized asteroid was closer to Earth than our own moon. What with the Chelyabinsk incident still in our global memory, this space rock's little fly-by field trip certainly serves as a reminder of how far our asteroid detection and warning systems have to go.
Astronomers at the Steward Observatory in the Arizona mountains made the discovery, also noting that newly-discovered space rock was about 25 feet wide. Asteroids of this size don't actually pose much risk to Earth, and even if asteroid 2014 HL129 were comprised of iron, its impact would have been akin to the sort Earth already endures every decade or so.
At a distance of 186,000 miles, asteroid 2014 HL129 never really posed the threat of an impact to those of us here on Earth. We do imagine that the folks aboard the ISS would have liked to know it was around, though. When Earth-orbit space elevators and moon colonies start showing up, humanity will likely want to have a better system of asteroid detection — and maybe even a way to move them out of our way.
Via Space.com
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