Google News 09/23: An asteroid nears the Earth

A reflection on space rocks and their significance to us

An asteroid about the size of the Empire State Building will pass by our planet tomorrow, reaching a closest approach of two and a half million miles or 11 times the distance of the moon before continuing on its orbit around the Sun. The space rock, still known by its rather uninspiring name 523934 (1998 FF14), was discovered more than two decades ago by a team in New Mexico and astronomers have been monitoring it ever since.

Fly-by events like tomorrow’s have a way of capturing the public’s attention. When the asteroid 367943 Duende skimmed past the Earth at a dizzying proximity of 17,000 miles — closer than some communication satellites — it received widespread media coverage. There was no chance of impact, but nonetheless, people couldn’t help but stay tuned throughout the whole event.

Aside from being giant chunks of rock that hurdle through space, what do these extraterrestrial objects mean to us? I can think of four things they signify.

Annihilation

The impact of an asteroid is an explosion on the scale of many nuclear bombs, so massive that it triggers natural disasters like earthquakes and tsunamis in its wake. They also leave giant scars on the face of…