Asteroid Inbound to Earth

An asteroid is heading towards earth. If the 60 meter asteroid hits the earth in February 2013 it could create a blast as big as the Siberian Tunguska event. Or just break into pieces. No-one knows. It's too late to mitigate 2012 DA14 with a space mission.

 

February 15th 2012 DA14 will come within 16,700 miles of earth. The surface area of the earth is 510 million square kilometers of which 71% is water. The US surface area is 9.6 million square km which comprises less than 2% of the surface of the earth. 2012 DA14 would destroy a 45 by 45 km area, with lesser blast effects around it. Basically an area the size of metro NYC. Are you feeling lucky?

Update:

JPL shows next to no chance of impact. In fact, they only track the asteroid from 2020 on. Both the Palermo and Torino scales suggest no impact