According to NASA, an asteroid about half the size of a football field and with a mass of about 130 metric tons “will pass very close to Earth on February 15, so close that it will pass inside the ring of geosynchronous weather and communications satellites.” In fact, this will mark “the closest ever predicted Earth approach for an object this large.”
The asteroid is called 2012 DA14 (I prefer EARTHSHAKER!, but those damn scientists are so set in their elitist classification systems), and it was discovered by the La Sagra Sky Survey in Spain last February.
So, in honor of 2012 DA14, I give you these righteous paintings of extinction-level impacts from the eminent space artist, Don Davis.
2 Warps to Neptune 
Back in ’98 I remember some scientists predicting a very large asteroid was to come really close to—and possibly collide with—our big blue marble. I found an article from the NY Times here. The story made some rounds on the news, etc. and I became somewhat obsessed with the the idea that 2028 could very well be our armageddon. I even wanted to make t-shirts with a future-retro looking family (adorned with bubble helmets) pointing at an impacting asteroid on the far horizon, with the words “I Can’t Wait ‘Til ’28!”
The hype’s long since disappeared, but who knows?
That 2028 asteroid is weak sauce compared to EARTHSHAKER!
Holy crap! There was a literal EARTHSHAKER that streaked through the sky in Russia this morning!! WTF! http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/15/16969092-streaking-meteor-explodes-in-russian-sky-injuring-nearly-1000?lite
I know! I have to post some pics… Look for the video on Reuters.
There’s a few taken by some Russian dash-cams on YouTube. The meteor’s so bright it totally blows out the screen! Dood, all joking aside, they’re totally lucky that thing burned up and didn’t hit the ground.