Asteroids??

TU24 is a miss - guaranteed.

AN10 has to hit a 'window' about 400 miles square in order to be deflected for an impact in 2039. VERY long odds.

Objects pass this close, or closer, every year.

Back in the 70s there was a 100m object that passed THROUGH THE ATMOSPHERE over Oregon and Washington state, and a LOT of pictures were taken of the pass.

Don't worry. 100m objects will cause localized damage but are NOT planet killers. You have to get into the MILES in diameter to begin to worry about an E.L.E..

2007 Tu24 you don't have to worry about. It will miss us 100%. However, 1999 An10 has a chance of hitting us, although very small. But, if the asteroid were to pass a region in space called a "Gravitational Keyhole" then yes, it could come back to slam us in 2039.

The real question is not "if", but when will a large asteroid/comet slam into the earth?

Many think the government's spending on pure research a waste of taxpayer's money. Developments do come from pure research. Look at the information the Hubble telescope has unveiled.

Many research into weaponry has yielded technological advances for us all. Microwaves were researched in WWII.

We need to keep doing research for it's own sake. We also need to reach for the stars. Sound impossible? Just a little over a hundred years ago man was not believed to be able to fly.

I think we should be more worried about other things than asteroids. Nasa pretty much has this one covered.

1999AN10 was very soon afterwards determined to be coming nowhere near Earth in 2027.

http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news037.html